194 ASPARAGUS. 



fertility is better kept up. "We have found an occasional use of 

 ashes, leached or unleached, to be of great benefit; and the 

 farmer who does not find it conTenient to obtaia any other than 

 bam-yard manure, may efieot a change by ploughing under a 

 crop of clover every five or six years. This, of course, will 

 necessitate an occasional change in the garden spot. But in 

 whatever way it is done, this variation in the character of the 

 manure applied will be found of essential benefit. Finely- 

 ground bones is probably the best commercial manure within 

 the reach of our farmers. This can be had at about twenty-five 

 dollars per ton, and will pay well if applied once in four years 

 as a rotation manure. With soil thoroughly under-drained, well 

 and deeply pulverized, and abundantly supplied with manures, 

 the foundation is laid for -successful gardening.. 



ASPAEAGUS. 



This is a valuable early vegetable, perfectly hardy, and peren- 

 nial ; consequently, a bed of it will last for twenty years. The 

 ground is prepared by deep ploughing and subsoiUng, or by 

 trenching with a spade, at the same time incorporating with the 

 soil an abundance of manure. The Asparagus delights ia a rich 

 alluvial soil, in which sand predominates. It is usual to obtain 

 plants of two years' growth for forming a bed. These can be 

 had of any nurseryman or market gardener. When it is not 

 convenient to procure the plants, seed may be piu:chased of the 

 seedsmen, and sown, either in the faU. or spring, ia drills a foot 

 apart. The seed should not be sown very thick, and after the 

 plants appear they should be thinned out, if necessary, so as to 

 stand about four inches apart in the row. If these have been 

 well cared for they wiU be qtite large enough to take up when 

 one year old and transplant into the permanent bed. Some sow 

 the seed pn the intended bed, and never transplant at all. In 

 that case the rows should be about eighteen inches apart, and the 

 plants niae inches apart ia the row. If plants are set out it 



