ASPARAGUS 9 



render it possible to grow Asparagus on soils from which this 

 vegetable could not otherwise be obtained. The preparation is 

 the same in either case, and therefore we shall make no further 

 allusion to flat beds, but leave those to adopt them who find their 

 soil and requirements suitable. Now comes the question of distance, 

 on which depends the width of the beds, and we settle the first point 

 by the measure of the plant, and the second by the measure of the 

 man. There are advocates of a square yard or even more being allowed 

 to each root, for which of course some return will be obtained. This 

 must be regarded as a fancy crop, and though monster sticks may 

 occasionally realise, as they have done, 3/. or 4/. per hundred, there 

 are not many buyers. Even as home produce such sticks are not 

 wanted at every table. An abundant crop of handsome, though 

 not abnormal Asparagus is of far more consequence. After many 

 experiments, we have come to the conclusion that the best mode of 

 insuring a full return of really good sticks, with the least amount of 

 labour, is to lay out the land in three-feet beds, with two-feet alleys 

 between. In some instances no doubt five-feet beds, planted with 

 three rows of roots, one down the middle and another on each side 

 at a distance of eighteen inches, is preferable. For the majority of 

 gardens, however, the three-feet bed is a distinct advantage, were it 

 only for the fact that all excuse for putting a foot on the bed is avoided. 

 On this narrow bed only two rows of plants will be necessary. Put 

 down the line at nine inches from the edge on both sides, and at in- 

 tervals of fifteen inches in the rows dibble holes three inches deep, 

 dropping two or three seeds in each. This will give a distance 

 between the rows of eighteen inches. In very strong land, heavily 

 manured, the holes may be eighteen inches apart instead of fifteen. 

 April is the right month for sowing. 



When the ' grass ' from seeds has grown about six inches will be the 

 time for thinning to one plant at every station of fifteen or eighteen 

 inches in the row. Much of the injury reported to follow from close 

 planting has been the result rather of carelessness in thinning. The 

 young plant is such a slender, delicate thing, that, to the thoughtless 

 operator, it seems a folly to thin down certainly to one only. The 

 consequence is that two or three, or perhaps half a dozen, plants are 

 left at each station to ' fight it out,' and these become so intermixed 

 as to appear to be one, though really many, and of course amongst 

 them they produce more shoots than can be fed properly by the 

 limited range of their roots. Severe, or we may say mathematical 

 thinning is a sine qud non, and it requires sharp eyes and careful 



