FORCING ASPARAGUS. wal 
if you hang one so that it rests on the surface of the 
bed, you will find that it will rise to 55°, and most 
likely to 60° in warm sunny weather, when the Asparagus 
is growing. This proves that Asparagus only requires 
a surface heat, more or less, to get it early. 
- I propose the setting or building up of brick walls 
round established Asparagus beds, similar to the plan 
above, but for the purpose of forcing on this plan the 
bed should be arranged so as to face the south, with 
something to screen it on the north side. If it is 
planted three full years before the forcing is begun, so 
much the better. Then the four-and-a-half-feet brick 
walls may be built two and a half feet high at the 
back, and one and a half feet in front. The width 
should be eight feet; this will allow of four rows of 
roots, and the row next to the walls may then be four- 
teen inches from them, and the other rows can be a 
little less than eighteen inches apart, the plants being 
eighteen inches in the rows. 
The same preparations which.are generally required 
in making permanent beds in the open ground are 
necessary here. The chief thing in making Asparagus 
beds is to dig in as much sea-sand as possible. There 
is nothing like an abundance of this, with some sea- 
weed buried in the bottom for Asparagus growing, and 
as much pig dung as can be well worked into the soil. 
The bed should be trenched eighteen inches or two 
feet deep. Every October or November, the surface 
should be top-dressed with strong manure, which has 
had some pounds of salt, or decomposed seaweed, 
mixed with it. 
The forcing may begin in January, by putting on a 
slow fire, just enough to create a slight elevation of 
