2OO THE HOME ACRE. 



two small beds we have raised during the past eight 

 years twice as much as we could use, and at the 

 cost of very little trouble either in planting or 

 cultivation. 



In my effort to show, from the hardy nature of 

 the asparagus plant, that extravagant preparation 

 is unnecessary, let no one conclude that I am op- 

 posed to a good, thorough preparation that accords 

 with common-sense. It is not for one year's crop 

 that you are preparing, but for a vegetable that 

 should be productive on the same ground thirty or 

 forty years. What I said of strawberries applies 

 here. A fair yield of fruit may be expected from 

 plants set out on ordinary corn-ground, but more 

 than double the crop would be secured from 

 ground generously prepared. 



When I first came to Cornwall, about twelve 

 years ago, I determined to have an asparagus bed 

 as soon as possible. I selected a plot eighty feet 

 long by thirty wide, of sandy loam, sloping to 

 the southwest. It had been used as a garden 

 before, but was greatly impoverished. I gave it 

 a good top-dressing of barn-yard manure in the 

 autumn, and ploughed it deeply; another top- 

 dressing of fine yard manure and a deep forking 

 in the early spring. Then, raking the surface 

 smooth, I set a line along its length on one side. 

 A man took a spade, sunk its length in the soil, 



