ASPARAGUS. ] 3 



The following hints may be useful to the young 

 horticulturist. A bed twenty yards long, with four 

 rows of plants, at one foot apart each way, will take 

 240 plants, which at four years old will produce 

 above 100 shoots daily throughout the season ; and 

 the quantity will increase every year. The author 

 has had more than fifty buds in the season, pro- 

 duced from one single root, the bed being in a 

 high state of cultivation, according to the method 

 previously advised. From the above statement, a 

 calculation may be made as to the quantity of land 

 required to be planted to supply the wants of the 

 family. 



Where asparagus beds run east to west, or north 

 to south, and the alleys are well filled up, they may 

 be planted on the warm side, with a row of kidney 

 beans of an early kind, which will not interfere with 

 the cutting of the grass, and will produce sooner by 

 a week or ten days than if sown in the open ground; 

 or, occasionally, where ground is scarce, a central 

 row of early spring-sown cauliflowers may be planted, 

 at thirty inches apart. The author has grown them 

 remarkably fine, in such situations, without any de- 

 triment to the beds. 



Asparagus beds should be enriched with an ad- 

 dition of good rotten dung, once every two or three 

 years at farthest ; the benefit of which will be evi- 

 dent in the quantity, as well as the size and quality, 

 of the produce. The dung for this purpose should 

 be completely rotted, like that of old cucum- 

 ber or melon beds. It should be applied after the 

 stalks' are cleared off, and spread two or three inches 

 thick over the surface of each bed, and a double 

 portion in the alleys ; the beds being then slightly 



