208 KITCHEN GARDEN. 
bed will continue productive for a number of years. A 
moderate coating of salt every fall is very useful. 
Asparagus readily admits of being forced. The most 
common method in England is to prepare, early in the 
year, a moderate hotbed of stable-litter, and to cover it 
with a common frame. After the heat of fermentation has 
somewhat subsided, the surface of the bed is lined with 
turf, to prevent the escape of vapor; a layer of light earth 
or exhausted tan-bark is put over the turf, and in this the 
roots of asparagus plants five or six years old are closely 
placed. The crowns of the roots are then covered with two 
or three inches of soil. A common three-light frame may 
hold 500 or 600 plants, and will afford a supply for seve- 
ral weeks. After planting, linings are applied when ne- 
cessary, and air is occasionally admitted. Care must be 
taken not to scorch-the roots. Where there are pits for 
the culture of late melons or succession pine-plants, such 
as the Alderston-pit, or the succession-pit with the hot 
water circulation, they may advantageously be applied to 
this purpose. 
It has sometimes been recommended to force asparagus 
on the ground on which it grows. Perhaps the best me- 
thod is that suggested by Mr. Spiers, in vol. iv. of the 
Gardener's Magazine. The seed is sown in beds four 
feet eight inches wide, and there are four rows of plants 
eleven inches asunder in the beds. The beds are to have 
side trenches, two feet wide, and two feet deep, lined by 
pigeon-hole brick-work—an operation which we presume 
need not be performed till immediately before forcing, that 
is, when the plants are at least three years old. In Octo- 
ber, when the stalks are cleared away, the surface is cover- 
ed with straw-litter. When forcing is commenced, the 
brick-lined trenches are filled with hot stable-dung, well 
