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is sown in two drills, about two inches deep, and 18 

 inches from the alleys, thus leaving a space of two 

 feet between the drills. The rows run invariably east 

 and west, doubtless in order that the plants may 

 shade the ground during the heats of summer.* 

 When the seedlings are about six inches high, they 

 are thinned to something more than a foot apart. 

 "Water is conducted once a day among the alleys and 

 over the beds, so as to give these seedlings an abun- 

 dant and constant supply of fluid during the season 

 of their growth. This is the cultivation during the 

 first year. The second year, in the month of March, 

 the beds are covered with three or four inches of 

 fresh night-soil from the reservoirs of the town ; it 

 remains on them during the summer, and is lightly 

 dug in during the succeeding autumn ; the operation 

 of irrigation being continued as during the first sea- 

 son. This excessive stimulus, and the abundant 

 room the plants have to grow in, must necessarily 

 make them extremely vigorous, and prepare them for 

 the production of gigantic sprouts. In the third 

 spring, the Asparagus is fit to cut. Doubtless all its 

 energies are developed by the digging in of the ma- 

 nure in the autumn of the second year ; and when it 

 does begin to sprout, it finds its roots in contact with 

 a soil of inexhaustible fertility. Previously, however, 



* Spain is hotter than England ; therefore, here the rows 

 should ranare north and south. 



