147 



should cut too many sprouts from his Asparagus hed ; 

 no one should remove limb after limb of his plants, 

 untill they produce nothing but what is too small for 

 table. On the contrary, the gardener should take 

 care to leave at least two or three strong sprouts to 

 grow from every root ; or, which is better, his beds 

 should be rested one year, and cut another ; for he 

 may be certain, from the strength of the summer 

 shoots, what sort of sprouts he will have to cut the 

 succeeding year — remembering always that it is use- 

 less to manure Asparagus beds for sprouts indepen- 

 dently of summer shoots. If a bed of Asparagus is 

 weak, manure in the autumn will do but little for 

 making it bring strong sprouts the next season. All 

 that the manure can then do is to feed abundantly the 

 summer shoots of the succeeding summer, and so 

 enable them to prepare plenty of materials out of 

 which a second season's strong sprouts may be pushed 

 forth. What is true of Asparagus is equally true of 

 Sea-kale and Rhubarb. {Ibid. 1842, 283.) 



Mr. Beaton, arguing similarly, says, you may lay 

 down as a rule having no exception, that if your 

 beds have not a vigorous growth in the summer, you 

 will look in vain for fine Asparagus in spring. As 

 the succulent shoots proceed from the buried root, 

 their size must be in direct proportion to the health- 

 fulness of that root, or to the quantity of organisable 

 matter that root has stored up. How, then, can the 

 l2 



