30 THE BOOK OF ASPARAGUS 



pared with other crops of a more bulky kind. The 

 greatest drawback is the time it takes to prepare the 

 plants for this work ; but when once well started on a 

 large scale, the work is simple, and the results will 

 justify the time and expense incurred. 



To sum up, then, the principal points to observe in 

 forcing asparagus. 



Three-year-old plants, well grown, as shown in the 

 illustration, should be used. Such plants should be taken 

 up and placed in a very gentle heat, especially at the com- 

 mencement, whether in frames resting on leaves or spent 

 tan, or in pits of any length with the means of affording 

 a little warmth, or in cucumber, melon, or tomato- 

 house, when such crops are over. No new soil need be 

 added, the plants merely requiring to be covered a few 

 inches deep, and when necessary lightly watered with 

 tepid water, or with water about ten degrees warmer 

 than the temperature of the house, pit, or frame. In 

 any case do not use cold water, for although the plants 

 will not admit of strong forcing they always respond to 

 warm water. 



I must here say that when such means as I have ad- 

 vised be employed to force asparagus, the plants are of 

 very little further use ; in fact they do not pay to nurse 

 for subsequent work. There is, however, another way 

 of forcing, which consists, not in bringing the plants to 

 the heat, but in bringing the heat to the plants. There 

 are two notable places where this is done, one being 

 His Majesty's garden at Frogmore, the other being Zion 

 House Gardens. 



In the former the beds are made somewhat after the 

 style of ordinary out-door beds, but are bricked up at 

 the sides, after the style of the old fashioned melon and 

 cucumber pits. The spaces between, as nearly as I 

 remember, measure from three to four feet, half the 

 depth being filled with soil, and the top half provided 



