FORCING ASPARAGUS. 171 



if you hang one so that it rests on the surface of the 

 bed, you will find that it will rise to 55, and most 

 likely to 60 in warm sunny weather, when the Asparagus 

 is growing. This proves that Asparagus only requires 

 a surface heat, more or less, to get it early. 



I propose the setting or building up of brick walls 

 round established Asparagus beds, similar to the plan 

 above, but for the purpose of forcing on this plan the 

 bed should be arranged so as to face the south, with 

 something to screen it on the north side. If it is 

 planted three full years before the forcing is begun, so 

 much the better. Then the four-and-a-half-feet brick 

 walls may be built two and a half feet high at the 

 back, and one and a half feet in front. The width 

 should be eight feet ; this will allow of four rows of 

 roots, and the row next to the walls may then be four- 

 teen inches from them, and the other rows can be a 

 little less than eighteen inches apart, the plants being 

 eighteen inches in the rows. 



The same preparations which are generally required 

 in making permanent beds in the open ground are 

 necessary here. The chief thing in making Asparagus 

 beds is to dig in as much sea-sand as possible. There 

 is nothing like an abundance of this, with some sea- 

 weed buried in the bottom for Asparagus growing, and 

 as much pig dung as can be well worked into the soil. 

 The bed should be trenched eighteen inches or two 

 feet deep. Every October or November, the surface 

 should be top-dressed with strong manure, which has 

 had some pounds of salt, or decomposed seaweed, 

 mixed with it. 



The forcing may begin in January, by putting on a 

 slow fire, just enough to create a slight elevation of 



