90 The Garden. 



enougli for a moderate family), sow from fifty to a hundred 

 pounds of salt, incorporating it with the soil to the depth of 

 four or five inches. The ground having been well pulverized 

 and leveled, lay it off into beds about four feet wide, with 

 alleys two feet wide between them. Drive a stake at each 

 corner. This work should all be done toward the end of 

 March. IlTow cut a small trench or furrow six inches deep, 

 lengthwise of the bed, and about nine inches from the edge. 

 Take up the plants very carefully from the seed rows, and set 

 them in this trench or furrow, nine inches apart, with the 

 crown of the root two inches below the surface, and cover 

 them at once. Proceed in the same manner with the whole, 

 making the rows twelve or fourteen inches apart. A damp 

 day should be chosen for the operation, which must be care- 

 fully and skillfully performed. Keep the weeds down during 

 the summer, and on the approach of severe weather cover the 

 beds to the depth of three or four inches with rotten manure. 

 The first two years the plants are permitted to run up to 

 stalks, that strong crowns may be formed at their base for a 

 future crop. The winter dressing of manure must be continued 

 while the bed lasts, the tops being cut off and removed each 

 fall. In the spring, so soon as the frost will permit, loosen the 

 surface of the beds with a manure fork, introducing it three 

 or four inches into the soil, and turning it up, being careful 

 not to injure the crown of the roots. A full crop may be ex- 

 pected the fourth year after planting, or at the South a year 

 earlier. Cut when about four or five inches above the surface. 

 The shoot should be cut off slantingly about three inches 

 below the surface, using a long, sharp-pointed knife. The 

 cutting should never extend beyond the middle of June. 



With good culture, an asparagus bed will continue product- 

 ive for fifteen years, but too many shoots must not be cut from 

 it, nor the cutting prolonged beyond the time we have named. 



2. Sea Kale — Gramba Maratima. 

 This plant is closely related to the cabbage, and is called by 



