IIo ASPARAGUS 
soil is kept moist ; the steam has a penetrating effect, 
and permeates all parts of the bed, giving a uniform 
heat throughout ; this moist steam keeps up a con- 
tinual fermentation of the manure mulch, thus giving 
heat, and only occasional brief steamings are necessary. 
‘Care must be taken not to use too much steam 
at one time, or the plants may be ruined by overheat- 
ing. Our asparagus rows were four feet apart, the 
tunnels midway between them were only eight inches 
wide, and yet we found that five minutes at a time 
was as long as was safe to force steam into a single 
tunnel. 
‘These experiments have been so successful as to 
indicate that any one provided with a steam-heating 
plant could successfully force asparagus for the mar- 
kets in this manner.’’ 
Another plan of forcing asparagus in the field, 
devised by Prof. L. H. Bailey, is thus described in his 
‘“Forcing Book’’: ‘‘’The Cornell asparagus house—if 
it may be called a house—is about twenty by fifty feet 
and the frame is made of steam-pipes. The sides, or 
walls, are only eighteen inches high, and the frame 
consists simply of a ridge and three pairs of rafters. 
The steam-heating pipe or riser is just beneath the 
ridge, and this feeds two returns upon either side of 
the house, next the walls. When it is desired to force 
the asparagus, canvas or muslin is stretched over the 
frames. No difficulty has been found in starting the 
asparagus into growthin January and February. The 
cover is left on and the heat kept up until all danger 
of frost is past, when the canvas is removed and the 
plants grow naturally out-of-doors. The secret of 
