rnE GABDEX. 87 



.ose together five or six inches from the bottom. Put on thia six inches of 

 the strongest stable manure, and fill up to the top with manure and dirt, 

 about half and half. The whole space need not be dug out at once, but the 

 bed can be made in the usual mode of trenching. The roots may now be 

 put in over the entire bed ten inches apart, or in single rows two feet apart, 

 and ten inches plant from plant, and then covered with rich soil about thr^g^ 

 inches deep, and over the whole a peck of salt and a peck of ashes mixed to- 

 gether, sown. 



Asparagus, being a marine plant requiring salt and alkalies for fertilizers, 

 needs in most locaUties an annual supply of these materials, though culti- 

 vators Mvitig within the influence of the sea -coast say they can find no bene- 

 fit in using salt. The beds, of course, are to be kept clean at all times, and 

 an abundant supply of hquid manure from the stable or washroom during 

 the summer will be fotmd the best method of manuring. The ordinary 

 method of after culture in this country is to let the stalks grow until Novem- 

 ber, then cut them down. Cover the bed with coarse manure, and in the 

 spring fork it in. In France the stems are cut down to about thirteen inches. 

 In England they do as we, cutting down to the ground, but uncovering the 

 stools, so as to leave on only a very slight covering of soil. Now, for small 

 gardens in which asparagus is grown for family use, I doubt the propriety of 

 cutting down the stalks in the fall, and consider it the best plan to let them 

 stand until spring, and then put on the bed all the old pea-brush or other 

 loose dry material, and bum them and the stalks together, and the ashes 

 will furnish all the manure required, and the bed go on improving indefi- 

 nitely. The practice of the Komans was to "bum the haulm in its own 

 place." And later authorities say, "Cut the dry tops close early in the 

 spring, spread and bum them erenly on the ground, hoe and rake the beds 

 over, and you will have large crops for twenty-five years." Not far from my 

 residence is an asparagus-bed which the present owner, now an octogenarian, 

 helped make more than half a century ago. The only manuring it has re- 

 ceived for the latter half that period is the annual spring burning of the 

 stalks and refuse material on the bed, and it is not only vigorous, but im- 

 pro^-iug, sending up new shoots to fill the vacant places occasioned by too 

 late cutting. K this practice works well in Berkshire, where the boBt de- 

 scends to the depth of several feet, and asparagus-beds are not injured, 

 though covered with nothing but the haulms, during such a winter as last, 

 when the white mantle of snow was wanting, it would seem to be adapted to 

 any climate. 



The greatest injury to beds of asparagus is cutting too late. Cut all the 

 shoots at a suitable age up to the 20th of June. Always cut below the sur- 

 la<;e. In Spain, previously to the cutting, the bed is covered Ughtly with 

 dead leaves to the depth of about six or eight inches, and the cutting does 

 not commence till the plants peep through this covering. In France the 

 cultivators form over each stool a conical lump of soil, like a large mole-hiU, 

 ten to twelve inches high, in early spring or soon as the ground is dry, and 

 the asparagus is gathered when it pushes an inch or two above the hills. In 

 the clunate of Paris the cutting is never prolonged beyond the middle of 

 June. The experience of nearly all who grow this vegetable is, that if some 

 shoots are not allowed to go to seed, the plants will soon become weakened, 

 and die. 



Celerj-. — Our manner of treating the celery crop of late years is very 

 much simplified, says 3Ir. Peter Henderson. Instead of sowing the seed In 



