76 Commercial Gardening 



When it is determined to put down some Asparagus, the plot chosen 

 should receive careful cleaning and good manuring for two years, the 

 drainage should be overhauled and the bottom well broken. 



Raising- the Plants, &C. The plants had better be raised from seed 

 sown in March of the previous year, in drills 12 in. apart. As the seeds 

 are a long time germinating, and when they first come through the young 

 plants are very difficult to distinguish, it is well to mix with the Asparagus 

 seed something like Radish or Spinach, which comes up quickly, so that 

 the place where the drills are is marked soon enough to get one hoeing 

 before the Asparagus is up, or weeds will be a trouble all the summer. 



Good sorts to grow are Connover's Colossal (American), Palmetto, and 

 Argenteuil Early (French). Four or five pounds of seed will be sufficient 

 to plant an acre. 



Planting". Planting time is the end of March, when the plants should 

 be forked out and carefully separated to single crowns. The land where 

 they are to be planted should, after being ploughed, be balked up with the 

 furrows open 3 ft. 6 in. apart. The bottom of the furrow should be broken 

 with a horse hoe and then levelled. 



Some crushed bones may be sown along the furrow, but no other 

 manure should be used at time of planting. 



The plants are laid in the bottom of the furrow, either with their roots 

 spread out all round, or laid on the side with the roots all pointing the 

 same way along the furrow. After the plants are laid in they are covered 

 with 1J in. of mould raked in with a hoe from the side, and then are well 

 trodden in. The middles may now be cropped. It is well not to be too 

 greedy in cropping the middles, or the growth of the young Asparagus 

 plants may be checked. It is well, also, not to put in a crop that needs 

 going over often, like Runner Beans, because then the young Asparagus 

 runs great risk of being trampled on. The best is a crop like Mangold 

 or Beet that does not come to harvest until the Asparagus has made its 

 summer growth. 



It goes without saying that he who would establish a profitable plant 

 of Asparagus must make up his mind to keep the weeds down from the 

 first. Probably as the summer advances it will be seen that some of the 

 plants have failed to develop. A gap in an Asparagus row is an expensive 

 thing, and it is worth going to some trouble to get these gaps filled up, 

 A good plan is to plant something that will stand all the winter, like 

 a Leek, in each gap, on the spot where the Asparagus plant ought to be. 

 This is done, not for what the plants thus planted will bring in, but in 

 order to serve as a mark that will indicate in the spring, when all traces of 

 the Asparagus above ground are obliterated, where each gap is. Plants 

 raised by fresh seed sown in the spring can then be easily inserted in 

 the gaps. Some recommend planting two-year- and even three-year-old 

 plants. It will be found better practice to plant yearling plants as de- 

 scribed above. 



The first year after planting, the mould on the Asparagus crowns can 



