162 



ever mode be adopted, the earliest time to commence 

 forcing is at the end of September. If the heat is well 

 sustained, the plants will produce available shoots in 

 the course of from four to six weeks, according to the 

 length of the days, and will continue in production 

 for about three weeks. To have Asparagus at Christ- 

 mas, begin forcing in the middle of November. 



Forcing the Open-ground Beds. — This mode was 

 first suggested by the late Mr. P. Lindegard, gar- 

 dener to the King of Denmark. His directions are 

 succinctly as follows : — Stir up iho, beds in the open 

 garden with a fork, about five weeks before you wish 

 for a cutting, and heighten them with a spit taken 

 from the alleys, which are to be two feet wide, and 

 the beds four feet wide, having two rows of plants on 

 each bed ; deepen the alleys to three-and-a-half feet, 

 then fill them with hot fermenting dung, and cover 

 the beds with litter. One plank over the alley, and 

 another along the centre of the bed, between the two 

 rows, will enable a man to walk and gather the crop, 

 without injuring anything. {Trans. Hort, Soc. 

 V. 79.) 



The open-ground forcing, in the ordinary beds, is 

 sometimes tolerably successful, but on the whole we 

 should consider it inferior to some of the other 

 modes, unless planted specially for the purpose in 

 short lengths, running north and south. For in 

 forcing an ordinary bed it takes a consideral)le 



