ASPARAGUS. 



ASPARAGUS. 



: ; or they may be sown in drills made the 

 same distance asunder, or broadcast. If dry 

 weather, the bed should be refreshed with mo- 

 derate, but frequent waterings, and if sown as 

 late as April, shade is required by means of a 

 little haulm during the meridian of hot days, 

 until the seeds germinate. Care must be taken 

 to keep them free from weeds, though this 

 operation should never commence until the 

 plants are well above ground, which will be in 

 the course of three or four weeks from the 

 time of sowing. If two plants have arisen from 

 the same hole, the weakest must- be removed 

 as soon as that point can be well determined. 

 Towards the end of October, as soon as the 

 stems are completely withered, they must be 

 cut down, and well-putrefied dung spread over 

 the bed to the depth of about two inches : this 

 serves not only to increase the vigour of the 

 plants in the following year, but to preserve 

 them during the winter from injury by the 

 frost. About March in the next year, every 

 other plant must be taken up, and tnuisplanted 

 into a bed, twelve inches apart, if it is intended 

 that they should attain another, or two years' 

 further growth, before being finally planted 

 out ; or they may be planted immediately into 

 the beds for production. It may be here re- 

 marked, that the plants may remain one or two 

 years in the seed-bed ; they will even succeed 

 after remaining three, but if they continue four 

 they generally fail: it is, however, nearly cer- 

 tain that they are best removed when one year 

 old, for the earlier a plant can possibly be re- 

 moved, the more easily does it accommodate 

 itself to the change, and less injury is it apt to 

 receive in the removal. Some gardeners sow 

 the seed in the beds where they are to remain 

 for production. This mode, too, has the sanc- 

 tion of Miller. The time for the final removal 

 is from the middle of February until the end 

 of March, if the soil is dry and the season 

 warm and forward; otherwise it is better to 

 wait until the commencement of April. The 

 plan which some persons have recommended, 

 to plant in autumn, is so erroneous, that, as 

 Miller emphatically says, the plants had better 

 be thrown away. Mr. D. Judd has mentioned 

 ( Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond., vol. ii. p. 236) a very 

 determinate signal of the appropriate time for 

 planting, which is, when the plants are begin- 

 ning to grow : if moved earlier, and they have 

 to lie torpid for two or three months, many of 

 them die, or in general shoot up very weak. 



Immediately that the buds begin to swell 

 they should be removed, and this may easily 

 be ascertained by occasionally opening the 

 ground down to the stool. A successful expe- 

 riment, tried by Mr. J. Smith, gardener to the 

 Earl of Kintore, would evince that one year 

 . old asparagus plants may be removed even as 

 late as June. The stems of his plants, at the 

 time of removal in that month, were twelve or 

 fifteen inches high : they were removed and 

 treated with the greatest care, the earth being 

 gently pressed round the root, and water given 

 plentifully ; but although the experiment per- 

 fectly succeeded, for none of them died, and 

 although they surpassed in growth those left in 

 the seed-bed so much so, that they might have 

 been cut from yet still, for many reasons, we 

 16 



are justified in considering that this must have 

 been tried under accidental or very favourable 

 circumstances of soil and season, and it re- 

 quires repeated experiments from different 

 counties before the practice is confirmed. 

 (Cakd. Hort. Mem., vol. i. p. 71.) In forming 

 the beds for regular production, it is customary 

 to have them four or five feet wide. In the 

 first instance, they have three rows of plants, 

 in the latter four. The site of the bed being 

 marked out, the usual practice is to trench the 

 ground two spades deep, and then to cover it 

 with well-routed manure from six to ten inches 

 deep; the large stones being sorted out and 

 care taken that the dung lies at least six inches 

 below the surface. To mix- the manure with 

 the soil effectually, Mr. D. Judd, before men- 

 tioned, trenches his ground two feet deep, three 

 times successively during the autumn or win- 

 ter, at intervals of a fortnight, and then lays it 

 in ridges until wanted, performing the work i:i 

 the absence of rain or snow: he justly ob- 

 serves, that the preparation of the soil is of 

 more consequence to be attended to than all 

 the after management. (Trans. Hurt. Stic. 

 Low/., vol. ii. p. 234.) 



In France, however, where the beds are cele- 

 brated for the number of years they continue 

 in production, a pit is dug five feet in depth, 

 and the mould that is raised from it sifted, 

 care being taken to reject all stones, even as 

 small as a filbert ; the best part of the mould is 

 laid aside for making up the bed. The bed is 

 then formed as follows, beginning at the b^- 

 tom; six inches deep of common manure 

 eight of turf, very free from stones six of 

 manure six of sifted earth eight of turf 

 six of very rotten dung eight of best earth ; 

 finally, this last layer of mould is well incor- 

 porated with the adjoining one of dung. The 

 bed is then ready for the reception of the 

 plants. (Dr. M'Culloch, in the Caled. Hurt. 

 Mem.) The plants being taken from the seed- 

 bed carefully with a narrow, prolonged dung- 

 fork, with as little injury to the roots as possi- 

 ble, they must be laid separate and even to- 

 gether, for the sake of convenience whilst 

 planting, the roots being apt to entangle, and 

 cause much trouble and injury in parting 

 them. They should be exposed as short a time 

 as possible to the air; and to this end it is ad- 

 visable to keep them until planted in a basket, 

 with a little sand, and covered with a piece of 

 mat. The mode of planting is to form drills 

 or narrow trenches, five or six inches deep 

 and a foot apart, cut out with the spade, the 

 line side of each drill being made perpendicu- 

 lar, and against this the plants are to be 

 placed, with their crowns one and a half or 

 two inches below the surface, and twelve 

 inches asunder: in France eighteen are al- 

 lowed. The roots must be spread out wide in 

 the form of a fan, a little earth being drawn 

 over each to retain it in its position whilst the 

 row is proceeded with. If the plants have be- 

 gun to shoot, it is the practice in France to 

 remove the sprouts, and with this precaution 

 the planting is successfully performed as late 

 as July, and if any of those die which were 

 first planted, they are replaced at that season. 

 This is a practice to be avoided as much as 

 L 12 



