66 THE CANADIAN HORTIGULTUKIST. 



the Spy requires the best of cultivation, and abundance of manure, or 

 it will prove a source of vexation and disappointment. 



The American Agriculturist for 1862, page 367, has an enconium on 

 the Spy. It is there spoken of as the best and most profitable apple 

 for table and market, as commanding a high price even when other 

 varieties are abundant, and as being hardy because it blossoms late. 



I am inclined to think the habit it has of developing its leaves and 

 blossoms late, is useful in more ways than one. The eggs of the Canker 

 worm and of the Tent Caterpillar hatch out almost simultaneously with 

 the leaves and blossoms of other apple trees, but the little worms 

 nearly starve on the Northern Spy, before the leaves are developed. 



SPECIAL MANUEES FOE ASPAEAGUS. 



BY JOHN ELKINGTON, M. D., OMPAH, ONT. 



I was much pleased and interested on reading an article in No. 2 

 Canadian Hortictltukist. Anything tending to the increased culti- 

 vation of Asparagus is very desirable, on account of its delicate flavor, 

 its great earliness, the ease with which it is cultivated when once 

 established, and its very valuable dietetic qualities ; and with regard to 

 the latter, it may not be generally known that it posesses medical 

 virtues of an undoubted value, especially in the Spring-time, after a 

 long "Winter, when in many cases the diet has largely consisted of salt 

 meats and " hard tack." 



This delicious vegetable has been a specialty with me for many 

 years. The writer of the article above alluded to, says it is a marine 

 plant, and requires salt as a manure. Knowing that, and reasoning by 

 analogy, I made many experiments upon the use of saline manures for 

 this plant, and as the result of these, have been in the habit of adding 

 one pound of sulphate of magnesia to each peck of salt, as an annual 

 dressing, with marked increase in size, and especially a heightened 

 color of the rich bronze-green or the tops. This mixture, with plenty 

 of leached ashes, lime in any shape, preferably in the form of gypsum, 

 applied in the Spring, and last year's hot-bed as a top-dressing in the 

 Fall, has always given me satisfactory results. One year, after a long 



