AMPJLBJLOUa OVLTVBM. 61 



December 



The work indicated in the mouth of ITovember is con- 

 tinued, and unearthing and manuring are discontinued. Com- 

 posts and manures are prepared for spring plantations and 

 good plants are secured, if that has not been done already. 

 Fresh manure should be added to those beds in the open 

 ground where forced Asparagus is being grown, if the weather 

 is excessively cold. Hotbeds are examined and, where neces- 

 sary, fresh ones are made. 



EssBNTiAi. Points in the Peoduotion op Good 

 Asparagus. 



Although the details of the system of growing good 

 Asparagus require some little space to describe on paper, 

 the essential differences between that and the system com- 

 monly employed in England are so very clear that they 

 may be shortly stated. Each plant is treated as an in- 

 dividual — as a vigorous subject requiring much space in 

 which to grow, if strong growth and strong shoots are 

 desired. Long experience has taught cultivators that 

 smaller space than 4 ft. apart will not suffice to give the 

 very best result. At first sight people in this country 

 might suppose that this means a waste of ground, but it 

 really is not so. At first, when the plantation is young, 

 waste of grqund is avoided by taking a light crop off be- 

 tween the lines — say one of Kidney Beans or of early 

 Potatoes ; but after a good year's growth, and when the 

 Asparagus gets strong, its roots really occupy the whole 

 space, and the result is so much more satisfactory than in 

 the common way, that the ground afibrds a better and more 

 satisfactory return. There are two principal ways of growing 

 this crop — one, devoting a certain portion of ground to it, 

 as usual with us ; the other, alternating plants between 

 Vines or small fruits, or placing a plant wherever there is 

 room for one. This last way is important, because it may 

 be carried out in small gardens everywhere, and by its 

 means we should become more readily convinced of the 



