652 ASPARAGACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



with sea-weed has long been found the best manure for asparagus in 

 Scotland ; and night-soil the best at St. Sebastian, where the surface of 

 the beds is only about three feet above high-water mark. From this 

 last circumstance we are led to conclude, that if the subsoil at the 

 depth of three feet is porous and kept moist in the growing season by 

 the water of an adjoining river or lake, and the surface strewed over 

 every spring with salt, there will be a union of the most favourable 

 circumstances for growing asparagus to a large size. The soil ought 

 to be trenched at least three feet deep, and a layer of animal manure 

 of some kind, such as good stable-dung or night-soil, put in the bottom 

 of the trench, and mixed with the soil throughout in trenching ; and 

 if the ground is re-trenched immediately before planting, so much the 

 better. For the convenience of management the plants may be grown 

 in beds four feet wide, with alleys between them two feet wide. There 

 may be three rows of plants in each bed, the outer rows nine inches 

 from the edge of the bed, and the centre row fifteen inches from the 

 outer rows. To afford the means of keeping the beds of a regular 

 width, a strong oak stake may be driven down in each corner, which 

 will be a guide in stretching the line, when the alleys are to be dug 

 out in autumn, and filled in from the bed in spring. The seed may 

 be sown in drills an inch deep in March, and the plants thinned out 

 to the distance of one foot in the July following. The fourth year 

 the plants will afford stalks fit to cut. To save time, two-year-old 

 plants are sometimes used instead of seeds ; these are either purchased 

 from a nursery, or raised in a seed-bed, and for a bed four and a half feet 

 wide, by six feet long, one quart of seed will be sufficient. If sown to 

 remain, then for three rows in a bed of fifty feet in length, half a pint 

 of seed will be necessary. The seed will come up in three weeks. 

 The quantity of plants required is easily calculated. They are planted 

 in the trench manner, or in drills, in February, March, or April, keep- 

 ing the crowns of the roots two inches below the surface. The quan- 

 tity of ground sown or planted, even in the smallest garden, should not 

 be less than a rod, as it requires that extent of plantation to produce a 

 single good dish. For a large family one-eighth of an acre will be 

 requisite ; but five poles, planted with 1600 plants, will yield from six 

 to eight score heads daily for a month. 



Routine Culture. Mr. James Barnes says : " Plant to the extent re- 

 quired good two-year-old plants in rows two feet apart on well-manured, 

 well-trenched ground well incorporated together by frequent turnings 

 in winter : no fear of applying too much manure, or other decayed vege- 

 tation, old decayed well-rotted leaves, sea-weed, &c., so long as it is 

 well incorporated, tumbled over into rough ridges during the frosty 

 days of winter, forked down level about the end of March or begin- 

 ning of April ; plant it carefully as soon as it has commenced, or 

 made a start of two or three inches of growth placing the line at 

 two feet distance, drawing a deep drill on each side of the line fork- 

 ing out the plants from your seed-bed, if any, dividing their roots, care- 

 fully placing them astride the little ridge that is left by drawing the 

 drill each side of the line as above, covering over the roots as soon as 



