How to Grow Good Asparagus. 535 



inches from the one just mentioned ; then, for the alley and 

 two sides of the bed, five feet are allowed ; then another 

 row of seeds, and so on, that gives two rows to each bed. 

 The first year Onions are generally sown all over the ground ; 

 the second year. Lettuce, or any dwarf-growing vegetable 

 that will not choke the Asparagus, and so on ; until the third 

 year, when the beds are formed out, and a few inches of 

 mould dug out of the alley, and put on the crowns ; but 

 only a few of the finest heads are cut this year. Autumn 

 arrives, and when the haulm is cut, the Avhole of the ground 

 is forked over, and planted with cabbage, coleAvorts, or win- 

 ter greens ; then in spring the beds are largely supplied with 

 mould out of the alleys, covering the crowns from eight to 

 ten inches deep. The finishing of the cuttitig must be left 

 to the grower. A fair crop of heads must be left after four 

 or five weeks' cutting, in order, in some measure, to strength- 

 en the young buds for the next year's crop, and to restore to 

 the roots what has been taken from them in the shape of a 

 crop ; but not one head must he allowed to grow until you 

 leave off cutting entirely at the end of the fourth year, (?) 

 When the haulm gets ripe, it is all cut down, and the mould 

 thrown into the alleys, and there enriched, and the whole of 

 the beds and alleys are planted again with cauliflowers, &c." 



By this method the ground is economised with much skill, 

 no doubt: and never allowed to be at rest ; but the practice 

 is in this defective, that the beds are dry when they should 

 be moist, and that the Asparagus has to force its way up- 

 wards through a solid mass of resisting matter, which hardens 

 the shoots by the resistance it offers to their progress, and 

 renders t?iem tasteless, by depriving them of light, exxept at 

 the tip. which the Londoner nibbles with so much satisfac- 

 tion. Mr. CuthilPs plan is this : 



"I propose that each row be planted tlu'ce feet distant from 

 the other, and that each plant stand one foot apart in the 

 row. This will give ample room for cleaning the crop, and 

 for drawing up earth over the crowns, so as to form a ridge 

 three or four inches deep, to be lowered again for the purpose 

 of enriching the soil in the autumn and winter. By this 



