■278 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



[March 24, 



NEW ENGLAND FAR31ER. 



FRIDAY, MARCH 24, is e 6. 



TO THE EDIiOR OF THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



CULTIVATION OF ASPARAGUS. 



Mcthuen, March 10, 1820. 



Mr Fessende.n', — A communication is request- 

 ed throusrh ^'our valuable paper, Iroin some per- 

 son who possesses the knowledge of the best 

 tnode of managing an aspsiragus bed, the soil and 

 manure best adapted to the same, roots one year 

 from the seed. 



Likewise some information from any gentle- 

 man whose practical knowledge will warrant 

 him in saying whether a person can, or cannot, 

 realize a prolit, by cutting food for his cattle 

 and horses. 



Any information about these enquiries will 

 much oblige A SUBSCRIBER. 



By THE Editor. — "^ Deaneh Kew England 

 Fanner''^ directs to open a trench three feet 

 wide, and twelve inches deep. If it be close to 

 the south siile of a giirden wall, it will be up 

 the earlier in the spring. Fill the trench half 

 full ntgood thing; m^ke it level ami sprinkle a 

 little rich earth over it, and lay on the roots, in 

 tlieir natural position, eight or nine inches apart. 

 Or if you cannot get roots, place the seeds at 

 half the distance from each other. Cover liiem 

 by filling up the trench with the blackest of the 

 earth which was taken out. If you plant roots 

 the shoots may be cut the second year after; if 

 seeds, they will not be.tit to cut tili the third 

 year. All the shoots which come up belbre 

 the middle ot June, may be cut olf without in- 

 juring the roots; after which time the late 

 shoots should be left to run up and seed ; other- j 

 wise the roots will be weakened. The seeds ! 

 miy be well preserved on the branches through \ 

 the winter, hung up in a dry situation. ! 



"This plant grows well in ground that is | 

 shaded. It is not amiss to have one bed in n| 

 shady (ilace, to supply the table after the season j 

 is over for cutting the first. In autumn, alter! 

 the tops are turu'd white by the frost, they ! 

 slinuld be cleared ofi', and a layer of dung, or; 

 rich soil, an inch thick laiil over the bed. This, 

 sliouid be done yearly, and the bed kejit clear 

 of weeds. If the bed should gi;l too liigh by 

 this management, the surface may be taken ofl 

 with a sjiade early in the spring, to the depth 

 of two inches, belore tlie young shoots are in 

 the way. But when ihis is done a thin <lressing 

 of rotten dung or compost «houId tie laid on. 



" The soil for a-|..iragus should be the best 

 whicli the garden aiTords, not wet nor loo strong, 

 and -Stubborn, but such as is modeiately liglit 

 and pliable, and will readily fall lo pieces in dig- 

 ging or raking." 



The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Art. Horticul- 

 ture says " This vegetable is cultivated exten- 

 sively for the London market ; and it is estimat- 

 ed that in the parish of Morlake alone, there 

 are generally about eighty acres under this 

 Clop; — a thing, Neil o'oserves, which must ap- 

 jiear almost incredible to those who have not, 

 widipssed the loads of Ihis arliclp daily heaped 

 on the green stalls of the metropolis lor the 

 space of nearly three Hionths. Asparagus, this 

 author adds, was a lavorite ot the Romans, and 

 (bey seem lo have possessed a very strong-grow- 



ing variety, as Pliny mentions that, about Ra-| 

 venna three shoots would weigh a pound ; vvith | 

 us six of the largest would be required. It is j 

 much praised by Cato ; and as he enlarges on j 

 the mode of culture, it seems probable that the 1 

 plant had but newly come into use." | 



Loudon says, " It is best to raise this plant , 

 from seed ; and it is of considerable consequence ; 

 to gather it from the strongest and most com- ] 

 pact shoots; such seed as might naturally be i 

 expected, yielding by far the best plants. If 

 sown to transplant, for a bed four teet and a half j 

 wide by six feet in length, one quart of seed i 

 will be requisite. If sown to remain, for a bed ' 

 four feet and a half wide by six teet in length, 

 one pint is necessary. If plants a year old are i 

 wanted for a plantation, then form a bed seven 

 feet and a half wide by thirty feet in length, to I 

 contain lour rows of plants, nine inches distant ' 

 in the row, one hundred and sixty plants ivill j 

 be requisite. i 



Abercrombie says," for planting asparagus, al- 

 lot a plot of sound lirownish loam, mixed with sand 

 in an open compartment full to the sun. Hav- 

 i'lg trenched it thirty inches deep, or as near that 

 depth as the soil will allow, manure the bed 

 with well reduced dung, six inches tliick or 

 more, digging in the dung regularly one spade 

 deep. Then lay out the ground in regular beds 

 lour teet and a half wide with intervening alleys 

 three feet wide. If the soil is naturally too 

 light or poor, improve it with a little vegetable 

 mould or pulverised alluvial compost alter the 

 bottom has been dunged. 



'■^ Judd [who laid before the Horticultural So- 

 ciety in 1816 a specimen of asparagus, pro- 

 nounced by those who saw it, to be the finest 

 they had ever seen) says, " Prepare a piece of 

 good land unencumbered with trees, and that 

 lies well to the sun ; give it a good dressing of 

 well reduced horse-dung from 6 to 10 inches 

 thick all regularly spread over the surface ; and 

 then proceed with the trenching (if the soil 

 will admit}'tiwo leet deep; after this first trench- 

 ing, it should lie about a forUiight or three 

 weeks, and then be turned back again, and then 

 again in the same space of time; by this pro- 

 cess the dung and mould become well incoroo- 

 rated ; it may then be laid in small ridgeslill 

 the lime of planting. This work should all be 

 performed in the best weather the winter will 

 afford, that is, not while it rains, or snow is ly- 

 ing on the ground, as it would tend lo make the 

 land heavy and sour ; [in this counlry perhaps 

 the fall of the year would he the best lime] all 

 this IS to be particularly attended to, as the pre- 

 paration ol the soil IS ot more consequence than 

 all the management afterwards. At the lime of 

 planting, I always spread over the ground an- 

 other thin coal of very rotten dung, and point 

 it in half a spade deep, making my beds three 

 teet wide only, with two feet ol alleys ; so that 

 throe rows ot a-sparagus, one loot apart, are all 

 1 plant on each bed; I find this to be the best 

 nicihoil, as by Ihis plan there is not the leaft 

 trouble in g.ilheiing, whereas you are obliged 

 lo set a fool on one of tlie wide beds before you 

 can got at all the asparagus, to the great injury 

 of the bed and tlie buds umlpi the surface." 



Dr Macculloch gives Ihe following mode of 

 preparing an asparagus bed, ns practised In 

 France ; and whirh it is said, has been adopted 

 b^' a gentleman in Pebleshire with success, — 

 "A pit, the size of the iotended plantation, 



is dug five feet in depth, and the mould which 

 is taken from it must be sifted, taking care to 

 reject all stones, even as small in size as a filbert 

 nut; the best parts of the mould t^iust then be 

 laid aside for making up the be<ls. The materi- 

 als of the bed are then to be laid in the folloiv- 

 ing proportions and order; six inches of com- 

 mon dunghill manure, eight inches of turf, six 

 inches of dung as before, six inches of sifted 

 earth, eight inches of turf, six inches of very 

 rotten dung, eight inches of the best earth. — 

 The last layer of earth, must then be well mix- 

 ed with the last dung. The compartment must 

 now be divided into beds five t'eet wide, by paths 

 constructed of turf, two feet in breadtti, and one 

 foot in thickness. — Caledonia Hurt. Meni. vol. ii. 



Dr Forbes describes the Vienna mode of mak- 

 ing an asparagus bed lo last 25 years. It is 

 deeply trenched and in the bottom is placed a 

 layer of bone, horn, chips of wood or branches 

 of trees a foot thick. Over this is placed mould, 

 cow dung and river mud. — Hort. Trans, v. 335. 



Nicol says, " It is of very great imj>ortance 

 for the ensuring of success in planting of aspar- 

 agus, to lift the roots carefully, and expose them 

 to the air as short a time as possible. No plant 

 feels a hurt in Ihe root more keenly than aspar- 

 agus ; the fibril? are very brittle, and if broken 

 do not readily shoot again." 



" Smith has proved experimentally, that the' 

 Ihe common season of planting is March and 

 April, yet it may also be performed in .Uinc,' 

 iviihout any extraordinary care. Judd, already 

 mentioned, transplants them when he observes 

 the plants beginning to grow, which he says " is 

 the best time for the plants to succeed. II mov- 

 ed earlier, they perhaps have to lie torpid lor 

 two or three weeks, which causes many of Ibem 

 to die, or if not they shoot up very weak.'' In 

 F«'ance, (according to Dr .Macculloch) they -plant 

 uven as late as July, cutting off such young 

 shoots as the plants have made belbre Ihe ope- 

 ration. 



Method of planting. — " Stretch a line length- 

 Wise the bed, nine inches from Ihe edge, and 

 with a spade, cut out a small treuch about sis 

 inches deep, perpendicular next to the line, 

 turning Ihe earth displaced along by the olher 

 side ol the trench ; and having the plants ready, 

 set a row along the trench nine inches apart, 

 with the crown of the roots two inches below 

 the surlace, drawing some earth just to fix them 

 as placed. Having planted one row, directly 

 cover them carefully with the earth of Ihe 

 trench, raking it hack regularly an equal depth 

 over the crown of Ihe plants. Proceed then lo 

 open another trench a loot from the first ; plant 

 it as above ; and in Ihe same manner plant lour 

 rows in each iied. Then lighily raking the bed 

 lengthwise, draw ofl any stones and hard clods, 

 and o'less the surface ne.tt and even. Then let 

 Ihe edge be imed out in exact order, allowing 

 three feet tor each sUey. But snineiimes in 

 planting large conipiirlmenfs ol aspuragus, a first 

 trench having been made, and the roots planted 

 as abo>p, then a second trench is opr>ned. of 

 which the earth is turned into the first over the 

 plants. So proceed in planting the whole; mak- 

 ing allowance between every four rows l"or an 

 alley of three feet. In a dry spring or summer, . 

 water the root^ from time to time till the plants 

 are established.'" — Ibercrombie. 



"An asparagus plantation should not contain 

 less than a pole [square rod] of ground, as it 



