BOOK I. FORCING ASPARAGUS IN PITS AND HOT-BEDS. 591 



evening will generally answer the purpose. Sometimes, in dull hazy weather, a fire 

 may be necessary in the morning, in order to enable you to admit air more freely, and 

 to dry off damp." (Abercrombie and Nicol.) 



3354. Air must be freely admitted every day in some cases to allow any steam to pass 

 off'; and for the sake of the color and flavor of the plants. As the buds begin to appear, 

 as large portions of air must be daily admitted as the weather will permit. 



3355. Water. When the asparagus-bed has, after planting, stood two or three days, 

 and when the heat will have begun to warm the root, give the plants a sufficient wa- 

 tering. Pour it out of a pot with a rose on it, to imitate a shower of rain ; let the bed 

 have enough to moisten the mould well, and to wash it in among the roots. Repeat such 

 waterings now and then. Nicol says, the roots must have moderate supplies of water : 

 once in three or four days, if the heat be not violent ; and if otherwise, oftener. 



3356. Gathering. " By the time the buds have come up three inches above the surface, 

 they are fit to gather for use, as they will then be six or seven inches in length. In ga- 

 thering them, draw aside a little of the mould, slip down the finger and thumb, and twist 

 them off from the crown. This is a better method than to cut them ; at least it is less 

 dangerous to the rising buds, which come up in thick succession, and might be wounded 

 by the knife, if cutting were practised." 



3357. Forced roots. The roots, after they have furnished a crop, are considered use- 

 less for future culture, because no leaves having been allowed to develope themselves, of 

 course no buds could be formed for the succeeding year. 



3358. Successional supplies. If the pit in which asparagus is forced, be twenty-five or 

 thirty feet long, it will be enough, for the supply of an ordinary family, to fill one half 

 at a time. If the second half be planted when the grass in the first half is fit for use, 

 and so on, a constant succession may be kept up in the same pit for any length of time 

 required. In order, however, to forward or protract the growth of the one part or of the 

 other, the pit may be divided in 'a temporary way, by fitting a board neatly under the 

 middle rafter. By this means, one half may be kept cooler or hotter than the other, by 

 matting or not matting, or by the admission of more or less air, &c. " In filling the 

 first end of the pit a second time, if bark be used, it will not be necessary to add fresh 

 materials ; as trenching over the bed will be found to answer the purpose, even a third 

 time. And in using dung, the stirring up of the old, and adding as much new as will 

 raise the bed to a proper height, finishing with the smallest and best fermented part, will 

 generally be sufficient for a second filling. For a third filling, one half new dung may 

 be necessary, which, however, should be moderately fermented, and be kept well down." 



3359. Forcing asparagus in hot-beds. Asparagus may be brought to perfection in 

 hot-beds at any time from November till it comes in the natural ground. When it 

 is intended to have a constant supply from hot-beds, M'Phail recommends one to be 

 made every fortnight, and Abercrombie once a month, from November till April. This 

 must, of course, be arranged according to the size of the hot-beds and number of the 

 family. 



3360. Forming the hot-bed. M<Phail says, ' Get a quantity of good dung well pre- 

 pared, by putting it together in a heap to ferment, that the rancidity of it may be evapo- 

 rated, by turning and mixing it several times when there is a strong heat in it ; make it 

 up into a bed about three feet high, and four or five inches larger all round than the size 

 of the frames, which are to be set upon it. When it is made, set the boxes and glasses 

 on, and let it heat and stand till it is sweet, which may be known by the smell of it ; 

 then tread it level, and loosen up the surface again, that the heat may have free liberty to 

 arise." In this stage, Nicol covers the whole with " rolls or squares of turf, cut so as 

 again to join exactly ; which lay green side down, and beat them well with the back of the 

 spade, that the whole may be close and compact, in order as much as possible to exclude 

 steam." To this practice M'Phail objects, as preventing the water from sinking freely 

 into the bed ; and if there be a sufficient heat in it for winter forcing, unless it receive 

 water, it must become dry and husky. The method, he says, is an old one practised 

 fifty years ago, and now exploded by every good gardener. Instead of turf, therefore, 

 M'Phail and Abercrombie, after setting on the frame, direct, with the bed from five to 

 eight inches thick, to use any sort of light earth. Nicol says, " I have often used old 

 bark reduced to a fine mould, without any mixture of earth, and have sometimes 

 mixed it with fine sandy earth, with little difference in the success ; only I have ob- 

 served, that when the roots were placed in bark entirely, the buds would come a few 

 days earlier." 



3361. Planting. Proceed as directed for planting on a bark-bed. Abercrombie says, 

 " Provide from five to nine hundred (he elsewhere says six hundred) roots for a hot-bed 

 under a three-light garden-frame. Having prepared the roots, mark out on the sur- 

 face of the mould the width of the frame ; then, beginning at one end, raise a small 

 ridge of earth crosswise, and proceed to planting ; placing the first course of roots nearly 

 upright, close against the said ridge, and with the crowns in contact, either upon the sur- 



