CHAPTER, 1¥2 
ON FORCING ASPARAGUS, SEA-KALE, ETC. 
ASPARAGUS. 
I HAVE often thought what a pity it is that Asparagus 
roots should be thrown away, after giving from 10s. 
to 15s. per hundred for them, and after getting 
perhaps about as much, or a trifle more, from them 
Fic. 33.—SECTION OF A SEVENTY-FIVE-FEET ASPARAGUS FORCING PIT. 
References —a, the bed, permanently planted with four rows of roots; B, one flow- 
and-return three-inch pipe running on the surface of the bed, close to the walls ; 
c, the boiler. 
than what the roots originally cost. Asparagus forcers 
should remember, that it is not bottom heat that is 
required to get it early, but a summer heat at the 
surface. If you plunge a thermometer into a bed in 
the open ground in the month of April, and shade it, 
you will find that it will not rise above 40° or 45°; but 
