76 ASPAEA.GTJ8 CULTTTEH. 



asunder, a plan under whioh a marked improvement on the 

 old bed system is observable in the size and quality of the 

 heads. It appears to me that the ArgenteuU system wliioh you 

 insist upon differs from this only in the greater distance 

 between both plants and rows. As I have not access to any 

 description of the Argenteuil system, I presume the manure is 

 applied annually by way of surface dressing, and is not pricked 

 in, but allowed to decay, so that eventually it will form a 

 superstratum of decayed manurial matter of a considerable 

 depth, through which the young heads appear in due season. 

 Results which are, however, perfectly easy to attain in some 

 localities cannot be obtained in others, with double the labour 

 and expense, owing principally to sub-soU and situation. 

 Redleaf. JOHN Oox. 



Tour proposals respecting the culture of Asparagus, of 



which I much approve, touch one of those cultural points in 

 which I feel myself very deficient, having never got out of the 

 rut of the old thick-set bed system, which gives quantity, but 

 not quality. The only suggestions I have to make to your 

 printed remarks are, that you might mention the depth of the 

 . trenches, and also whether or not there is any variety more 

 suitable than another for this mode of culture. I happen to 

 have two rows of one year's seedlings of Oonnover's Colossal, 

 ajid those I have planted out in shallow trenches 3 ft. by 4 ft., 

 as you suggest. I have no experience of this variety, and 

 would rather it had been the Giant or Battersea. Tour offer 

 of prizes wiU do much good towards the improvement of 

 Asparagus culture — more so, perhaps, amongst private growers 

 than in market gardens around London and the Vale o£ 

 Evesham, where it is grown pretty well. 



Combe Abbey, near Coventry. W, Milleb. 



— Tour plan of making the growth of Asparagus more 

 popular is a very good one, and likely to answer the purpose 

 intended ; itt truth, there is a great deal of ignorance displayed 



