12 FARMERS ASSISTANT. 



APRICOT. The culture that is proper for a peachtree 

 is also good for an apricot, with this difference, that it re- 

 quires a lighter and warmer soil than a peachtree. 



See PEACHTREE. 



ASH (Fraxinus} There are three kinds of ash in this 

 Country; the white, the yellow, and the black. The upland 

 vvhiteash is the best timber ; but is liable to a white rot 

 when kept too much in contact with the ground. Winter 

 is the best time for felling it to preserve the white part 

 from worms. The blackash is the most durable wood 

 for rails, Sec. 



ASHES. See MANURES. 



ASPARAGUS (Officinalis.) To make a bed of this ex- 

 cclent Spring green, open a trench tour or five feet wide 

 and one foot deep, in the warmest part of your garden; the 

 warmer the better. Fill the trench half full of good barn 

 dung; level it, and scatter some good earth over it; then 

 lay on your roots, eight or nine inches apart, in their natu- 

 ral position ; or, if seeds be used, about half that distance 

 apart : Fill up the trench with good soil and your bed is 

 made. 



If roots be planted, they may be cut the second year; but 

 if seeds, not till the third. Alter the bed is fit for use, all 

 the shoots which come up during the first six weeks may 

 be cut off; but all after that should run to seed to strength- 

 en the plants. 



As this plant is one of the first green vegetables which 

 the opening season presents, and as no substitute equally 

 productive* can be had till the season for green peas and 

 beans, it becomes a matter of economy to have two as- 

 paragus beds; the first to be brought forward as early as 

 possible; the other late. For this purpose, the latter ought 

 to have a northern exposure, and it should be spaded in 

 order to retard its growth ; by which means the plants 

 will be equally large and yet very tender. The roots 

 should be laid so deep as to admit of spading the ground 

 over them. The beds should be kept clear of weeds 

 throughout the season? In the Fall, they should have a 

 layer ot roten dung spread over them, an inch in depth, 

 which may in part be taken off the next Spring; and, 

 when the bed becomes too high by the constant addition of 

 dQng, part of the earth may be pared off in the Spring, 

 before the plants shoot, and the bed covered again with a 

 thin compost of roten dung. 



