VEGETABLES ASPARAGUS. 93 



same variety. Seeds of Cabbage, taken fiom the same 

 bag and sown at the same time, but planted out in soils 

 of light sandy loam, heavy clayey loam, and peat or leaf- 

 mold, will show such marked differences when at matu- 

 rity, as easily to be pronounced distinct sorts. This, no 

 doubt, is the reason why the multitude of varieties, of all 

 vegetables, when planted side by side to test them, are so 

 wonderfully reduced in number. 



PROPAGATION. Asparagus is propagated by seed which 

 is sown in spring, as soon as the soil will admit of working, 

 which should be prepared, by being thoroughly pul- 

 verized, and enriched with well-rotted manure. The seed 

 is sown in rows 1 foot apart, and if kept carefully hoed, 

 and clear from weeds, the plants will be in fine condition to 

 plant out the succeeding spring. Strict attention to thia 

 will save a year in time ; for if the seed bed has been neg 

 lected, it will take two years to get the plants as large as 

 they would be in one year, if they had been properly cared 

 for. In consequence of this very common neglect of 

 proper cultivation of the seed bed, it is an almost uni- 

 versal impression that the plants must be two or three 

 years old before planting. This is undoubtedly an error, 

 for almost all large growers for market purposes, in the 

 neighborhood of New York, invariably plant one-year old 

 plants, and count on marketing a crop the third spring 

 from the time of sowing. One pound of seed will pro- 

 duce about 3000 plants ; and to plant an acre of Asparagus 

 requires from 15,000 to 20,000 plants. 



PLANTING. The bed being prepared as previously de- 

 scribed, planting may be done any time for six or eight 

 weeks from the opening of spring ; the plant, from its pecu- 



