178 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



vegetable in general use, placing them alphabetically for 

 easy reference, and enumerate the leading varieties. 



ASPARAGUS (Asparagus officinalis.) 



Asparagus should be planted the first spring that the 

 owner comes into possession of the land, and if the house 

 is yet to be built, let the Asparagus-bed be planted at 

 once, as it takes the roots two or three years to acquire 

 sufficient strength to give a crop. For an ordinary family 

 a bed of six rows of fifty or sixty feet in length, and three 

 feet apart, will be sufficient, the plants in the rows 

 being set nine inches apart. In planting it is custo- 

 mary to use two-year-old plants, but it often happens 

 that as large a plant is raised from seed in good 

 soils in one year as in a poorer soil in two years ; in 

 such cases the one-year-old plant is preferable. The 

 preparation of the Asparagus bed should be made with 

 more care than for most vegetables, from the fact that 

 it is a permanent crop which ought to yield as well at 

 the end of twenty-five as of five years, if the soil has been 

 well prepared. The asparagus bed, to start with, should 

 be on ground thoroughly drained, either naturally or ar- 

 tificially, and if choice can be had, on a rather light sandy 

 loam. This should be trenched and mixed with suffi- 

 cient manure to form a coating of at least six inches 

 thick over the bed ; this manure should be worked into 

 the soil by trenching to the depth of two feet, as the roots 

 of the plant will reach quite that depth in a few years. 

 In setting, the crowns of the plants should be placed at 

 least three inches below the surface. It makes but little 

 difference whether it is planted in spring or fall ; if in 

 spring, it should be done as early as the ground is dry 

 enough to work, and if in fall, just as soon as the 

 plants can be had, which is usually in the early part 

 of October. We prefer fall planting on light, ; well- 



