CHAPTEE IV. 



ON FORCING ASPARAGUS, SEA-KALE, ETC. 



ASPARAGUS. 



I HAVE often thought what a pity it is that Asparagus 

 roots should be thrown away, after giving from 108. 

 to 15s. per hundred for them, and after getting 

 perhaps about as much, or a trifle more, from them 



FIG. 33. SECTION OF A SEVENTY-FIVE-FEET ASPARAGUS FORCING PIT. 



References a, the bed, permanently planted with four rows of roots ; B, one flow- 

 and-return three-inch pipe running on the surface of the bed, close to the walls ; 

 c, the boiler. 



than what the roots originally cost. Asparagus forcers 

 should remember, that it is not bottom heat that is 

 required to get it early, but a summer heat at the 

 surface. If you plunge a thermometer into a bed in 

 the open ground in the month of April, and shade it, 

 you will find that it will not rise above 40 or 45 ; but 



