154 ARTICHOKE ASPARAGUS. 



ceased, who arbitrarily, and perhaps unwarrantably, 

 set A before B. Wherefore, to proceed with A : 

 The Artichoke is a delicious and wholesome ve^e- 



o 



table, provided it be itself eaten rather than used 

 as a spoon. It is propagated by offsets from the 

 roots ; and as part of the offsets require to be 

 cleared away from old plants in order to leave no 

 more stems for next crop than have room to grow, 

 there is no difficulty in finding materials for a young 

 plantation. Choose the deepest of your soil, keep- 

 ing off the borders with this as with all high-grow- 

 ing crops, in order not to shade the wall fruit ; 

 and in April, for each row of plants make a ditch 

 two feet deep and three feet wide, on the bottom of 

 which spread a layer of manure four inches thick. 

 Then fill in half the earth, putting that lowest 

 which was formerly on the top; and with the other 

 half let more dung be mixed in the course of filling 

 up the trench. Set the plants, three in a clump, 

 eighteen inches separate ; and let the nearest part 

 of each clump be at least a yard distant from the 

 nearest part of the next. The roots will grow like 

 stakes, penetrating the under stratum of manure, 

 and send up strong stems, with large heads, for 

 seven years, without requiring any more trouble 

 than a rough digging of the ground before winter, 

 and a slight covering of litter in severe frosts. 



Asparagus is no doubt a good thing; but in 

 point of produce it is to the potato or turnip, or 

 almost any other crop, in the proportion of some- 

 thing like one to a hundred. If you are not ham- 



