FORCING ASPARAGUS. 117 



hot-beds, if the heat is reduced in the body of the beds, holes 

 may be carefully made to admit heat from the fresh linings, 

 so as to enliven the heat of the bed. 



A Fahrenheit thermometer should always be at hand at 

 the time of forcing, to be used, when necessary, to regulate 

 the heat in the beds ; and the water that is used in cultiva- 

 ting plants in frames, should be warmed to the temperature 

 of the air, or according to the heat required for the various 

 kinds of plants, which will be shown in the annexed articles. 



FORCING ASPARAGUS IN HOT-BEDS. 



As Asparagus is apt to grow weak and slender by extreme 

 bottom heat, it is forced with greater success, and with less 

 trouble, in flued pits in a hot-house, than in dung hot-beds, 

 because the heat from tan is more regular ; but a very suita- 

 ble bed may be formed in a deep hot-bed frame, made in the 

 usual way. If dung alone, or a mixture of dung and leaves, 

 be used, it should be in a state past heating violently before 

 it is made into a bed ; but if the gardener has no choice of 

 materials, he may make his liotvbed in the usual way, and if 

 the depth of heating materials be two feet, he may lay on a 

 foot of old hot-bed dung, tan, or any light compost, that will 

 admit of the heat passing through it. 



It may be necessary to state farther, that though too much 

 bottom heat should be avoided, heat is necessary to the pro- 

 duction of the vegetable in a moderate time, which is gene- 

 rally effected in a month or six weeks after the commence- 

 ment of the operations. For the purpose of keeping up a 

 regular heat, a lining of hot dung should be applied around 

 the frame, and changed as occasion requires. 



Provide plants from two to four, or even six years old, 

 trim their roots, and place them in rows on the beds ; when 

 one row is laid, strew a little mould among the roots, then 

 proceed in the same way with one row after another, keep- 



