364 



Culture of Asparagus, — Honesty the best Policy. Vol. XI. 



the following statement in regard to the 

 products and profits of his farm for the year 

 1846: 



10 acres mowing, 19 tons hay, 



at $12, $228 00 



3 acres corn, 124| bushels sound, at 



80 cents, and 9 bushels offal, at 



40 cents, 103 20 



Corn fodder, $25, and pumpkins, 



S4 50, 29 50 



3f acres rye, 77 bushels, at 80 cents, 



and straw sold, $24 81, 86 41 



2^ acres potatoes, 348 bushels, at 37^ 



cents., and 50 bushels small, at 



20 cents, 140 50 



367 bushels onions, at 50 c. $183 50 

 836 do. carrots, nearly all 



sold at 19 cents, 158 84 



48 do. parsnips, do., at 33| c. 16 00 

 6 pounds onion seed, and 3 



pounds carrot seed, 8 00 



Peppers and sage sold, 41 88 



Produce ofl acre and 125 square rods, 408 22 

 \ acre summer vegetables, mostly 



used in family — sold, 7 69 



Salt grass sold, standing, 24 00 



Milk sold, 47 39 



Rent received for two gardens, 6 50 



Milk, butter, and summer vegetables 



used in family, 35 00 



$1,116 41 

 Expenses.— Paid for labor $182 62 

 Board of labor, 90 00 



Molasses for drink, 20 gal- 

 lons, at 30 cents, 6 00 

 Manure purchased, and ma- 

 terials for the same, 81 46 

 Seeds of different kinds, 28 77 

 Wear and tear of farming 



utensils, 25 00 



Taxes, 11 81 



Labor done by himself, 50 00 



Cost of cultivation, 475 66 



Cost of land, $3,050 ; profits 20^ 



per cent, for use of land, 640 75 



Mr. Chadsey states, that he hires all his 

 help except the "little" he does himself. 

 He states that he made 917 pounds of pork, 

 and 560 pounds of beef, which are not in- 

 cluded in the account, as they were fattened 

 on part of the produce before estimated. 

 His stock, he says, consists of two cows and 

 a horse. He buys manure from the village. 

 With the horse he does all the "team work," 

 except breaking up the land. His products 

 for the year 1845, amounted to $913; his 

 expenses were $368; profits $545.— CwZ/i- 

 vator. 



Culture of Asparagus. 



Many farmers do not succeed well in their 

 attempts to raise asparagus, from the fact 

 that they do not begin properly, or put it in 

 the right kind of soil. It is a saline peren- 

 nial plant, and grows in stony or gravelly 

 situations near the sea in many places, and 

 is cultivated to a great extent in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paris, and grows to a large size 

 in the vicinity of Ulm and Augsburg on the 

 banks of the Danube, where the soil is a 

 calcareous sand, some three or four feet deep, 

 and the subsoil always saturated with water. 

 Many of the Steppes in the South of Rus- 

 sia and Poland, in the salt region, are co- 

 vered with this plant, which is eaten by 

 horses and oxen as grass. 



Premising that all seeds were originally 

 planted in soils most natural to their vegeta- 

 tion and growth, we learn from the above 

 facts, that two ingredients, viz: sand and 

 salt, are at least necessary for the propaga- 

 tion of this plant: hence in preparing my 

 bed five years ago for the seed, I selected a 

 warm sunny spot: and mixed in freely, sand 

 and coarse manure, saturating it with brine 

 to the depth of two feet. On the top I put 

 three inches of fine loam and vegetable 

 mould : planting my seeds — after steeping 

 them in warm water for twenty-four hours — 

 in rows, the seeds about eight inches apart, 

 and the rows about a foot distant from each 

 other. In the fall of each year, I mix fine 

 manure with the surface soil, and cover the 

 bed with coarse manure from my horse sta- 

 ble; and in the spring remove the coarse 

 part of it and strew on one to two quarts of 

 fine salt, and as soon as the weather becomes 

 warm and dry, irrigate freely every evening. 

 The third season we cut freely for the table, 

 and last year my bed of 5 feet by 30, fur- 

 nished our table every day, from the middle 

 of May to the last of July, when it was in 

 part allowed to stand and ripen, that the 

 roots might not become exhausted. — Farmer 

 and Mechanic. 



Honesty the Best Policy. 



A FARMER called on Earl Fitzwilliam to 

 represent that his crop of wheat had been 

 seriously injured, in a field adjoining a cer- 

 tain wood, where his hounds, during the 

 winter, frequently met to hunt. 



He stated that the young wheat had been 

 so cut up and destroyed, that in some parts 

 he could not hope for any produce. " Well, 

 my friend," said his lordship, " I am aware 

 that we have frequently met in that field, 

 and that we have done considerable injury; 

 and if you can procure an estimate of the 



