124 THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. [CHAP. VI. 



left about two inches below the surface) and 

 nine inches apart. The beds are generally- 

 covered during winter with rotten manure, 

 which is forked in and the beds raked in 

 spring ; and this treatment should be repeated 

 every year, or every two or three years at 

 farthest, the beds being slightly covered, in the 

 intermediate years, with litter, leaves, &c., 

 which may be forked in the following spring. 

 The stalks should not be cut till the third year 

 after planting; but, after that, the roots will 

 continue to produce freely for twelve or four- 

 teen years. Asparagus is generally cut a little 

 below the surface, with a sharp knife, slanting 

 upwards ; and the market-gardeners cut all the 

 snoots produced for two months, say from 

 April to Midsummer, but suffer all the shoots 

 that push up after that period to expand their 

 leaves, in order that they may elaborate their 

 sap, and thus strengthen the roots. Whole 

 fields of this plant are cultivated by the market- 

 gardeners near London, to the extent, as it is 

 said, of from eighty to a hundred acres, 

 chiefly near Mortlake, Battersea, and Dept- 

 ford. During some seasons, these fields, and 

 many private gardens near London, are infested 

 with a most beautiful little beetle, striped with 

 red, black, and blue, which eats through the 

 shoots close to the ground almost as soon as 

 they appear, and which can only be destroyed 

 by hand-picking. Where it is known to have 

 been prevalent, or where one is seen for the 

 first time, women and children should be em- 

 ployed to examine the beds, and to destroy all 

 they can find, to prevent the insects from laying 



