196 ASPARAGUS. 



"Worms in the soil which are prejudicial. When the bed is not 

 covered with barnyard litter in the fall, a top dressing of a 

 couple of inches of well rotted manure should be spread over the 

 bed, just as the plants begin to start in the spring. 



Cutting the buds for the table may be begun the third 

 spring. It is the practice of many to cut the buds two or three 

 inches below the surface, and, in most works, this is the direction 

 given. But why we should take so much pains to secure a long, 

 white, woody stalk, which no cooking wiU make tender, and no 

 person can eat, is more than we can understand. It is the prac- 

 tice of the writer to cut the buds, when three to five inches long, 

 just above the surface of the ground, thus securing' for the table 

 all the green portion, and leaving the white part in the soU. In 

 this way there is no danger of injuring the buds yet below the 

 surface, and the work is much more expeditiously performed. 

 This cutting should not be continued too long. When the beds 

 are young the buds may be cut a couple or three times over, but 

 when the beds have become established the cutting may be 

 kept up for three or four weeks. As soon, however, as the plants 

 begin to show any signs of weakness the cutting should be dis- 

 continued for that season. 



The buds are cooked by boiling them in water for twenty 

 or thirty minutes, until they become soft. Some toasted bread 

 is then laid out upon a dish, the cooked asparagus spread upon 

 the toast, and melted butter poiired over the whole. In this 

 manner the buds are kept entire and brought to the table. 

 Others cut the sprouts or buds into small pieces about half an 

 inch long, and cook and serve the same as green peas. Others 

 prefer to treat them simply as greens, and use them with 

 vinegar. 



Vauieties of Asparagus are mentioned by writers, and of late 

 much has been said about Conover's Colossal Asparagus. We 

 have no confidence in the existence of any such varieties, much 

 less do we believe they can bo perpetuated by sowing the seed. 

 A possessor of this Colossal, confident of its superiority in siz« 



