KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. CHAP. 



bed all in confusion, young ones growing at the top, and 

 old ones growing underneath. Therefore, the haulm 

 ought to be cut off before the seed drop ; and, if it 

 should, by accident, drop, in the cutting of the haulm, 

 the seed ought to be swept carefully up with a broom 

 and carried away. It is the practice of many persons, and 

 of most persons, to sow lettuces, onions and radishes, 

 upon asparagus beds, which are taken off before the 

 haulm of the asparagus arise to any considerable height 5 

 but this is a very bad practice : these plants rob the 

 asparagus, they prevent its due cultivation ; and, in 

 short, the injury to you as a gardener is much greater 

 than its good. In the cutting of asparagus, great care 

 must be taken to use a proper instrument, and to make 

 the cut in a proper manner. The instrument is a knife 

 made with teeth, like a saw, which ought to be put down 

 close by the side of the shoot which you are going to cut off, 

 and then you separate the shoot from the crown by a push 

 almost perpendicular j for otherwise, you might destroy 

 three or four shoots in the cutting off of one. Those shoots 

 which you do not cut off for the purpose of eating, are 

 left to go on to become haulm, and these are cut down 

 annually at the time and in the manner described. Such 

 is the manner of raising asparagus from seed. The man- 

 ner of raising from plants is this : you sow the aspara- 

 gus in March or April, in the same manner as described 

 for the beds, in some other spot -, and, when the plants 

 come up, you thin them carefully to the distance of about 

 three inches apart, keeping them very clean all the sum- 

 mer. In October, or in March the next year, you make 

 your beds as before ; and, instead of sowing seed in the 

 three rows upon each bed as before directed, plant these 



