VEGETABLES ASPARAGUS. 121 



Mr. Van Siclen is well known as one of our best Long 

 Island market gardeners, who has made the growing of 

 Asparagus a specialty for twenty years, and who has prob- 

 ably in that time sold more Asparagus in the markets 

 of New York than any other man. He was exceedingly 

 enthusiastic in praise of this variety, believing that at a 

 low estimate it would yield a profit of at least one-third 

 greater than the ordinary sort, under the same condi- 

 tions, besides coming to maturity two years sooner. 



Mr. Van Siclen's method of groAving Asparagus is sim- 

 ple, and in some respects new to me. To begin, he sows 

 his seeds in his rich sandy loam in April, in rows one 

 foot apart and two inches in depth, dropping the seeds 

 so that they may be distributed evenly about half an 

 inch apart ; the plants are cultivated by hoeing between 

 the rows and keeping them clear of weeds by hand pick- 

 ing. In the spring following he sets his plants, now one 

 year old, which are in his experience preferable to those 

 two years old. His mode of planting is somewhat differ- 

 ent from the usual practice, but for having a lasting 

 Asparagus bed one that will be as good at the end of 

 twenty years as it is at eight it is probably the best. 



It differs in setting the roots much wider apart than 

 usual ; his stand, six feet between the rows and four feet 

 between the plants, making less than two thousand 

 plants to an acre. In preparing the land to receive the 

 plants, he merely plows to the deptn of a foot or so with 

 the ordinary plow ; his soft, sandy subsoil rendering the 

 use of the subsoil plow unnecessary, but in soils less 

 favored the use of the subsoil plow would be of decided 

 advantage. In preparing to plant he turns out a furrow 

 with a double mold-board plow, so that at its deepest 

 part it is nearly twelve inches deep ; a good shovelful of 

 thoroughly rotted manure is then placed in the furrow, 

 at distances of four feet, so spread that it will make a 

 layer of three inches or so ; an inch or two of soil is then 



