258 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



warmth of the sun, as the buds will not only start 

 earlier, but will be larger and finer. 



The seed may be sown as soon as ripe in autumn, 

 or as early us a bed can be fitted for it in the spring, 

 the soil being of the finest, richest kind, and the 

 seed being put in in rows a foot apart and lightly 

 covered. They will be fit for transplanting the first 

 year if well cultivated, although some prefer letting 

 them remain in the seed-beds till the second year. 



An asparagus bed may be made by preparing the 

 ground as described above, and allowing four feet 

 for four rows of plants, with alleys two and a half 

 feet between every four such rows. The young 

 plants must be placed in trenches six or eight inches 

 deep, twelve inches apart in the rows, the crown of 

 <he- plants being left two or three inches below the 

 surface, and the whole raked over smooth and even 

 after planting. These beds may be made in autumn, 

 after the plants have ceased to, grow ; or in the 

 spring, before the buds have commenced growing, so 

 as not to be liable to injury from removal. If large 

 quantities are intended to be grown, the ground must 

 be prepared by repeated deep ploughings and manu- 

 rings, the rows planted four feet apart, and, when the 

 asparagus season is past, the intervals between the 

 rows may be ploughed and planted with any vege- 

 tables that will mature after that period. Turnips, 

 cabbages, and potatoes are grown in this way, thus 

 securing a double crop from the same land. 



When the stems of the asparagus show, by their 

 turning yellow, that they have finished their growth, 

 they should be cut close and carried from the beds, 

 whicli should at all times be kept perfectly free from 

 weeds. If the bed is then covered with leaves, 

 horse-litter, or other material that can be readily re- 

 moved in the spring or incorporated with the soil, 

 the plants will be benefited during the winter, and 

 earlier buds will be produced than cc^ld otherwise 

 be grown. 



