GARDENING FoR ALL. 53 
Asparagus is one of the most profitable crops to grow for 
market, and will realise from £30 to £60 per acre under good 
and intelligent management. 
We may adopt either of three methods of planting 
asparagus, viz., in rows three feet apart over the whole area 
to be planted ; in narrow beds containing two rows each; or 
in single rows at wide intervals of ten, twenty, or more feet 
apart. The two first are the best methods for growing 
asparagus on a large scale, and the third is well adapted for 
small private gardens. 
Asparagus will not thrive in wet and clayey soil, nor in 
that which is very poor and dry ; loamy soil is best for it. 
Seed may be sown in April, and, if desired, can be sown 
at once where the plants are to remain. In this case the 
seed should not be sown thickly. When the plants appear, 
thin them out to a foot or fifteen inches apart, but this had 
better be done at two operations in order to ensure a good 
and regular plantation. Sow the seed in drills an inch and 
a half deep. 
When a seed bed is made by itself the seed should be 
sown at the usual time, and in drills a foot apart. If the 
seedlings are two inches apart, so much the better. The 
following April these plants will be in prime condition for 
transplanting. Choose showery weather, and lift the young 
plants with all their roots intact, if possible, by inserting a 
spade underneath them and lifting them in a body, when they 
can easily be separated. 
Select the strongest plants for planting and reject the 
weaklings, because the latter will remain weakest to the end, 
and send up small spray instead of the desired thick and 
succulent heads. 
Do not expose the roots longer than is absolutely 
necessary, because if they become dried by exposure many 
of the plants will die; therefore, keep the root moist and 
covered from the air. 
In planting, spread all the roots out around each plant 
just as they were before they were removed from the seed-bed ; 
then cover with two or three inches of fine soil. In dry 
weather, water should be applied until the plants are 
established ; where watering would beimpracticable it would 
be best to sow seed where the plants are to remain. 
