116 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



plants being set one foot apart in the rows. It is absolutely 

 necessary to give asparagus a warm, rich soil, and, if it is in- 

 tended to make a permanent bed for a private garden, it would 

 be well to dig out the whole space, and underlay the bed with 

 six inches or more of well -rotted manure, or trench the ground 

 at least eighteen inches deep, mixing it thoroughly and plenti- 

 fully with such manure in the process, adding sand or road- 

 wash if the soil be heavy. 



Let the bed be so prepared in the fall, and in spring, having 

 dug it over, raked it smoothly, and with your marker laid it 

 out in one-foot squares, put in your plants exactly at the points 

 where the lines intersect, covering the crowns about three 

 inches deep. Keep it perfectly clear of weeds, and, if a drought 

 comes on, give attention to watering it. 



One year from the time of planting you may expect a light 

 cutting for the table ; but you had much better not cut any 

 the first year after planting than risk the injury to your suc- 

 ceeding crops by cutting too much. 



Top-dress your bed with well -rotted manure every fall, dig 

 the surface lightly over in the spring, and water it with the 

 old brine from your pork-barrel, or strew salt over the bed. 



By this process you will have asparagus sufficiently gigan- 

 tic ; and, if you desire it white, cover your bed six or eight 

 inches deep with road-wash or beach sand, and cut the aspar- 

 agus at that depth with a long knife whenever it shows itself 

 an inch or less above this covering. 



In cultivating asparagus upon a large scale, let your land be 

 most thoroughly manured ; set the plants four inches deep, in 

 rows three feet apart, and one foot between the plants in the 

 row ; keep it clean with the plow and corn-harrow, or cultivator, 

 manuring it every fall if possible ; and, if you choose to plow 

 in the manure lightly across the rows, as if the ground were 

 uncropped, it will bear the operation carefully performed with- 

 out injury to the next year's product, and with great advan- 

 tage in keeping it clean with little labor. 



