32 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



recommended, and then thin out the plants wide enough 

 apart to admit the use of the hoe. In raising asparagus 

 plants, we must aim to keep the land clean by the free 

 use of the hoe rather than by hand- weeding. 



The advantage of raising your own asparagus roots is 

 very great. If you take pains to sow on rich, mellow 

 land, and to keep the bed scrupulously free from weeds, 

 you will get stronger and better plants at one year old 

 than the average two-year-old roots generally offered for 

 sale. Then again, when you have your own roots, you 

 can let them remain undisturbed in the original bed un- 

 till you are ready to transplant them. 



MAKING AN ASPARAGUS BED. 



The old directions for planting an asparagus bed were 

 well calculated to deter any young gardener from making 

 the attempt. I can recollect very well the first asparagus 

 bed I ever planted. The labor and manure must have 

 cost at the rate of a thousand dollars an acre, and after 

 all was done, no better results were obtained than we now 

 secure at one-tenth the expense. In setting out a large 

 asparagus bed for market, I would make the rows not less 

 than four feet apart, and set out the plants in the rows 

 two and a half to three feet apart, or wide enough to ad- 

 mit the use of the horse-hoe both ways. In growing as- 

 paragus we not only want a good crop, but to get it early 

 in the season, and of the largest size. The size and earli- 

 ness, apart from rich, warm, dry soil, depend principally 

 upon the size and vigor of the roots the previous year. 

 A weak root throws up a weak shoot, while a strong root, 

 in which there is a considerable quantity of accumulated 

 nutriment, will throw up a large shoot early in the season. 



It is for this reason that thin planting is so desirable. , 

 Thin planting with clean culture, on any ordinarily en- 

 riched garden soil, will give us far larger and earlier 



