536 HoxD to Grow Good Asparagus. 



method I consider that Asparagus might be cut at least ten 

 days earlier than it is by the plan now practised, of burying 

 the roots deep in a bed of earth, where sun and air cannot 

 act upon them ; and, as for flavor, it has long been proved 

 that, although gentlemen's gardeners do not grow Asparagus 

 so large as the market gardener, of the two, it is by far the 

 finest in flavor with at least three times more eatable matter 

 in each head, though only two-thirds the length. I have 

 had Asparagus sent to me from Brussels, all blanched to- 

 gether, a beautiful creamy white, but, when cooked, I could 

 not discover the taste of Asparagus in it. It was watery and 

 insipid, as highly blanched Asparagus must always be, hav- 

 ing only the watery flavor of the roots. I have proved this 

 years ago, by keeping it in frames shut up, and the glass 

 covered over with mats to exclude light." "As soon as the 

 dead haulm is cut down in autumn, I give the beds a good 

 rich dressing of rich manure for the winter, salting them in 

 spring, and covering the manure with mould, to prevent 

 evaporation. The rain carries down the strength of the 

 winter covering to the roots ; and, when spring arrives, it 

 might be raked off into the alleys, leaving only mould 

 enough on the beds to protect the roots from the summer 

 sun. We have then Asparagus, green, and eatable almost to 

 the very root," 



In the preceding quotations the italics are our own. It 

 will probably be urged that this advice is nothing new. We 

 believe that to be so. But what the reader of gardening 

 works wants is not novelty, but instructions as to how he is 

 to find his way through the farrago of interested and disin- 

 terested recommendations by which he is surrounded. It is 

 of no consequence to nine men in ten how many ways there 

 may be of doing a thing ; what they want to know is the 

 best way ; or, if there is some difference of opinion as to 

 that, which way is certainly an excellent one. How seldom 

 they are told this by persons they can trust, their own expe- 

 rience will show them. It is as a most useful help, as far as 

 it goes, to those who most require help, that we have given 

 this prominent place to a notice of " Cuthill's Practical In- 

 structions." 



