ASPARAGUS. 71 



them all over the bed, and cover the whole with four or 

 five inches of fine and good sandy soil, composed of one 

 part maiden loam, one part old pulverised manure, and 

 one part sea sand. The plants may be put on this bed 

 in November or the beginning of December. 



Asparagus thus forced will be early and good and 

 will pay perhaps better than anything else. At a fair 

 computation full 201. worth of good saleable Asparagus 

 may be had from this bed by March if the roots are 

 strong and good, well bedded in, and watered, as soon as 

 the heads show up, with salt water. Do not shade them, 

 and get the heads as green as possible. In bedding the 

 roots in, first examine every crown and cut out all the 

 weak buds which are found round the most prominent 

 ones, as these will give only small spray stuff and will 

 materially weaken the buds for fine Asparagus. 



As soon as the middle or end of March comes it 

 will no doubt be so far over as not to be worth retain- 

 ing, therefore remove all the roots, and off with the 

 soil and one half of the leaves, which will be partially 

 decayed. Then make up the deficiency with fresh 

 stable manure, and fork the whole over, turning and 

 well mixing both the old leaves and the fresh manure 

 together, making a good firm bed for the summer 

 Cucumbers. The plants for this batch should be strong 

 ones struck from .cuttings a week or two previous to 

 making up the bed, and as soon as it has a little 

 bottom heat, which will be in a day or two, put the 

 plants out as for the winter batch. It will be necessary 

 to keep a sharp look-out for the red spider and thrip 

 at this time. Keep up a nice humid atmosphere 

 in the house by syringing all the pipes every morning, 

 and in the evening also during the fine sunny days as 



