KITCHEN GARDEN. 157 



terial.* To the last method we see no room for ob- 

 jection : in application it is easy, requiring no skill 

 and little labour, while the material and workman- 

 ship are both cheap and durable, and their property 

 of excluding rain, snow, and frost, not to be doubted. 

 Every gardener who understands his trade will 

 take care to set apart a few of the finest heads of 

 his own crop for seed ; but as the stock is upright, 

 and the head so formed as to receive and hold wa- 

 ter, it often happens that the seeds rot. To prevent 

 this, the stems of the plants so set apart should be 

 tied to stakes driven into the ground near them, and 

 gradually bent, so as to give to the heads that de- 

 gree of declination that will be sufficient to carry 

 off the water that may fall upon them. 



When well managed, the artichoke will give fruit 

 four or five years in succession; but, to avoid acci- 

 dents, new plantations should be made every year. 

 In some parts of Europe, as in France and Italy, 

 the taste for this vegetable is excessive, and much 

 beyond what it merits on the score either of nutri- 

 tiousness or flavour. Of this partiality the garden- 

 ers avail themselves, and by employing the varie- 

 ties which ripen soonest and latest, contrive to keep 

 the plant in the market (in its natural state) seven 

 or eight months of the twelve ; and means are then 

 employed to prolong its use, by converting it into a 

 comfit. In this country the taste for it is neither 

 common nor great ; and as the culture is expensive 

 and not always successful, we have doubts whether, 

 to gardeners who cultivate for the market, it is de- 

 serving of much attention. 



ASPARAGUS (Maratimus Officinalis). Of this plant 

 there are ten species, one of which only is an ob- 

 ject of garden culture, and to this botanists have 

 given the name prefixed to this article. 



* The earthen cylinders have been proposed by M. Bosc, of 

 the French Institute, and the straw caps by M. Feburier, of 

 Rennes. 



