160 GARDENING. 



rows) of fourteen inches. If you sow, cover the 

 seed with an inch of good soil ; and if you plant, 

 cover the roots to the depth of three inches with a 

 similar soil. No other crop should be sown in these 

 beds, and weeds should be carefully taken out by 

 the hand from time to time. On the approach of 

 winter, mow off the young asparagus, and cover the 

 bed with stable litter. In the spring, rake off this 

 covering, and keep the beds clean and loose during 

 the summer. Continue the same process till the 

 third year, when you may begin (but sparingly) to 

 cut the plants for table use. Formed and managed 

 in this way, and manured every third year after- 

 ward, an asparagus-bed will last ten or twelve 

 years.* 



Second Method. In the summer or autumn pre- 

 ceding your sowing or planting, divide the square 

 intended for asparagus into four feet beds, marking 

 the angles by stakes, and leaving alleys between 

 the beds of 1 1-2 or 2 feet. Excavate the beds to 

 the depth of twenty-six inches, and if you find the 

 bottom cold, and clayey, and retentive of moisture, 

 sink it half a foot deeper. Lay on this six inches 

 of coarse gravel, or stones, or both, and on these 

 place a layer of equal depth of tanner's bark or 

 chips, brushwood, weeds, horns, hoofs, or any other 

 slowly-decomposing matter, vegetable or animal. 

 Over this spread another layer, composed of cow 

 and horse dung mixed, to the depth of twelve inch- 

 es, and on the top of all replace the surface soil you 

 have thrown out, adding to it as much well-rotted 

 dung as will entirely fill up the excavation. In this 

 way you proceed to form the remaining beds ; and, 

 when all are finished, level and rake them, and re- 

 move the poor soil thrown out in trenching. As 

 early in the spring as the temperature of the weather 

 and the state of the ground will permit, dig the beds 



* American Gardener. 



