December 13, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



477 



quantities for our supply of plants for several years, and we 

 mention it for recommending the practice of having good 

 beds for forcing slightly, at least without the necessity of 

 destroying the plants, which is generally the case when old 

 roots are lifted and transferred to a mild hotbed. Last year 

 we stated how such beds should be made so as to be forced 

 by dung, by flues, or hot water ; and how for a little help, 

 a bed may have brick or board edgings, with a pit or narrow 

 ditch round it in which fermenting material may be placed 

 in March. No plan costs less trouble for present supply than 

 lifting the roots, from four to seven years old, out of the 

 beds, and forcing them in a slight hotbed; but then, of 

 course, the roots are of no more use, and, therefore, a con- 

 stant succession of young beds must be kept up to take the 

 place of the older ones broken up. Thus treated we have 

 had fine heads about Christmas from plants scarcely more 

 than three years from the seed ; but generally it is desirable 

 to have the plants older. 



One or two inquiries have been made as to the mode of 

 planting such raised plants in the hotbed, and doubts have 

 been expressed as to the possibility of gathering so many 

 heads from such a small space. These doubts would be dis- 

 sipated if it were recollected that all the good roots and 

 buds were clustered close together, to yield as much as 

 possible in the way of produce, without providing for the 

 produce of another year. We treat these Asparagus plants 

 in the hotbed just as some amateurs treat their one or two 

 stools of Rhubarb in the open air — by slipping off every 

 stalk and leaf that comes — a good plan for obtaining all the 

 present produce possible, but not a good plan if we expect 

 produce every year. Keeping in view, then, that we wish 

 the bed for its space to hold as much as possible, and that 

 by tree leaves, &c, we have a hotbed whioh will yield from 

 80° to 90° of bottom heat, we place all over it some 3 inches 

 of sandy soil and leaf mould. We then begin at the end of 

 a row or Asparagus-bed by taking out a trench, and with 

 mattock, spade, and fork undermine the mop-like roots with 

 their crowns, taking care not to break the latter. These 

 will generally be all sound if the bed is young, but some 

 will be rotten and decayed if the beds are old ; and such 

 should be removed, as without sound buds and roots there 

 will be no produce. These roots are placed carefully in a 

 barrow and are taken to the bed ; and the first row of 

 crowns is placed carefully at the back of the beds, and the 

 long mop-like roots are drawn out in front of them and 

 packed in the light rich soil. The next row of crowns is 

 placed on the top of these roots as near to the first row of 

 crowns as possible, and the mop-like roots drawn forward in 

 a similar manner, and so on until the frame or bed is filled. 

 A slight sprinkling of soil is then put over the roots, a 

 watering given so as to wash in among the long roots, and 

 then a couple of inches of leaf mould or old tan, or any light 

 soil thrown over all. The crop will depend more on the 

 previous treatment and the state of the crowns than on any- 

 thing we can do to give strength to the plants after they 

 are taken up. Extra heat is the greatest enemy they can 

 meet with, and this can be greatly regulated by the air 

 given. When once the shoots are about fit for use in winter, 

 light and air are necessary for colour and flavour ; but too 

 much air must not be given in cold weather, or the shoots 

 will be apt to be hard. Instead, therefore, of giving too 

 much bottom heat, we prefer banking up the sides of the 

 frame, so that we can give more air without greatly reducing 

 the inside temperature. 



Though we speak of hotbeds, however, our amateur 

 brethren may have Asparagus all the winter, especially after 

 Christmas, in their little greenhouses, or even in their rooms 

 and windows. We have seen it very good in cellars — rather 

 pale in colour, it is true, but much improved by being placed 

 in damp sand for a few days before using, and set in a 

 window, a little film being cut from the bottom of the shoot 

 every morning. The damp sand is better than water. We 

 have also grown it on the floor, and even by the sides and 

 on the top of a flue in a greenhouse, beneath stages, &c, in 

 boxes some 8 inches deep and a foot wide, moving the boxes 

 to the light as the shoots rose some 3 or 4 inches above the 

 ground. We have seen some such boxes very nice, in the 

 window of a clergyman's study, after being forced near the 

 kitchen fire. 

 It reminded us of the doings of another minister of the 



gospel, whose kitchen was a regular forcing-house in winter 

 for bulbs, Rhubarb, Sea-kale, &c. Enthusiast as he was in 

 everything connected with gardening, these pursuits were 

 engaged in, less from any object of mere self-gratification, 

 than the — (well, it must have been self-gratification, too, 

 though combined with) — the nobler desire, by means of a 

 flower, or a vegetable out of season, to throw some ray 

 of sunshine into the chambers of affliction and suffering. 

 Owing, we suppose, to the influence of a more than mes- 

 meric warm-hearted kindness, every young girl in the 

 kitchen, instead of grumbling at the trouble, took almost as 

 much interest in the old barrels and tubs that cumbered 

 her domain as her master himself. We have even been 

 assured that the short instructive interviews on such occa- 

 sions have become the beacon lights to regulate the course 

 of a life journey. Such success, under difficulties, is just a 

 proof of the truth of the old adage, that " Where there is a 

 will there will be found a way." 



Sea-kale and Rhubarb. — Took up some more roots, and 

 placed them in the Mushroom-house. Here we have just 

 taken a note out of the clergyman's book. When his Hya- 

 cinths and Tulips, and Narcissus, had filled their pots with 

 roots in the dark cupboard, and begun to push at the top, 

 he used to bring them nearer the fireplace, and, to encourage 

 upright prolongation, place a pot of the same size, reversed, 

 over them, with the small hole in the reversed pot open, 

 except at night. This kept a higher temperature in the 

 atmosphere round the lengthening flower-stem. When the 

 covering-pot got in the way, the pot, with the bulb, was 

 moved to the mantelpiece for a few days, and then to the 

 window. Now, in the case of Sea-kale, we think the easiest 

 and simplest of all plans for forcing it, is just to build a mild 

 hotbed, that will yield about 80° of bottom heat, and from 

 55° to 60° of top heat, place the roots thickly in it, and 

 cover with any old box or opaque material that will exclude 

 light and air, and which will leave an open space of 12 or 

 15 inches over the crowns. For a constant supply for first 

 cutting, this plan is apt to give too much produce at a time, 

 and, therefore, it is more suited to large families and market 

 supply, than to small households. In the latter case, little 

 at a time and regularly is more wanted, and, therefore, 

 though we might follow the above plan in a dark corner of 

 the Mushroom-house, we prefer for the first crops, packing 

 a lot of roots in some large pots. If these come faster than 

 we want them, we can remove them to a cooler, dark place. 

 If they do not come so soon as we want them, instead of 

 placing more heat about the pots, which might injure the 

 flavour of the vegetable, we find it better to place a pot of 

 the same size reversed over them, and this soon draws the 

 heads to the desired length. Let it be borne in mind, that 

 all things thus grown in the dark, be it Sea-kale, Rhubarb, 

 Chicory, or Turnip tops, depend chiefly for their strength 

 on the stored-up matter of the previous season, and for 

 their quality in being used in a comparatively short and 

 stubby state — say 6 inches for Sea-kale, and 10 or 12 inches 

 for Rhubarb. Go beyond that and you have watery juice 

 instead of substance. 



Mushrooms. — Perhaps it would be as well to notice what 

 can only be defended in an emergency. A short time ago 

 we stated that we feared our summer-beds would not give a 

 large enough supply for a shooting party, and, therefore, we 

 put more heat to the first bed in the shed Mushroom-house, 

 by turning over a preparatory bed below the one that was 

 to come on, so as to steam the house, and by letting heat 

 into a hot-water pipe, and steaming the house by syringing 

 the hot pipe. For eight or ten days the heat of the atmo- 

 sphere would range from 60° to 65 Q and 70°, just from 5° to 

 10° too much for general purposes. The object so far was 

 gained, as the bed has been, and is now, a white sheet of 

 Mushrooms of all sizes, from that of the fashionable cap 

 hat to the size of pin heads. But the very sight of the 

 large thick Mushrooms tells the initiated that the thing has 

 been over-done. We like to see those huge Mushrooms, 

 when it is desirable to have them, clinging, as it were, to 

 the bed, with their thick juicy stems only an inch or two in 

 height. Those large specimens we are now gathering, on 

 the contrary, are many of them on stems of from 3 to 4 inches 

 in height — a sure sign that the bed has had too much heat, 

 and almost as sure a sign that the produce may be ample 

 for a time, but that it will be exhausted prematurely, and 



