566 ACTION OF SALT ON ASPARAGUS. 



measure to the beds being inundated with sea- water at spring tides, as 

 we learn from Capt, Churchill, and we know that its influence is 

 extremely beneficial to this crop whenever it is applied while the plants 

 are making their growth. 



The following testimony has been borne to its effect on Asparagus, in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle: — " I forked into worn-out beds some manure 

 from an old Cucumber bed, levelled the surface, and completely covered 

 the beds with fine salt, at least a 5 of an inch in thickness, leaving it to 

 be washed in by rains. The result was that every weed was killed, and 

 the Asparagus has thriven in a remarkable degree, throwing up nume- 

 rous heads of large size and of excellent quality." With equally good 

 success another applied salt in summer at the rate of 2 lbs. per square 

 yard. A third in the spriag of ] 843, which was cold and wet, manured 

 his beds, 14 yards long and 1 wide, with salt at the rate of 2 lbs. to the 

 yard. He adds that, notwithstanding the unfavourable season, his 

 produce was greater and finer than ever he previously had it. In the 

 following year the same plan was adopted, the spring being dry and 

 frequently hot, and the produce was even greater and better in every 

 respect than that of the previous year. So satisfied is another corre- 

 spondent with the system of salting Asparagus beds, that he says : — ■ 

 "I have a bed 30 feet in length and 5 feet in width, on which I put 

 1 cwt. of salt about the middle of March for two years successively. 

 The increase of crop, both in regard to size and munber, is most extra- 

 ordinary ; I intend to continue 1 cwt. of salt for this bed every March." 

 In like manner other writers used salt at the rate of from 1 lb. to 

 2J lbs. per square yard with the most striking advantage, applying it 

 after cutting off the tops, and in spriag in rainy weather. From these 

 and numerous other instances it would appear that the beneficial effects 

 of salt as a manure for Asparagus is fuUy established, provided it is 

 applied at a proper period, which, in the majority of cases, has been 

 when the plant was in a growing state. Mr. Bree, of Stowmarket, 

 however, applied it with great advantage after dressing the beds ia 

 autumn, and again early in spring, using 1 lb. to a square yard. Ha 

 argues that the salt has to be washed through a considerable depth 

 of soil before it reaches the root, and when it does arrive there that its 

 caustic character will have materially altered by dilution and chemical 

 decomposition, and that it will do no harm then, but that it is injurious 

 when applied to the delicate texture of the young shoots late in the 

 spring. In the few oases in which salt has been said to be injurious, 

 the beds have either been in bad condition as regards drainage, or it 

 has been applied to beds newly formed, and therefore to plants with 

 wounded roots, for such recently planted Asparagus must be considered 

 to be, however carefully the plants may have been taken up. The 

 same may be said of Sea Kale : about 1-|- lb. is used to the square yard. 

 It is sometimes employed with advantage for Celery, but in that case 



