ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



513 



the plants are to be manured, as has been explained for the 

 fourth year. As the Asparagus plantation may last fifteen 

 or twenty years, the operations and the care to be taken 

 are to be repeated from year to year in the manner above 

 indicated. Generally, in a well established Asparagus plan- 

 tation, the gathering, reckoning from its beginning, is to 

 take place during two months, whatever may be the climatic 

 circumstances under which the plantation is placed. It 

 must have been seen that the expense is not very great; 

 the chief object is the care which must be taken. The 

 main point is to get good plants, in order to obtain good 

 produce. By properly following the rules laid down here, 

 satisfactory results will be obtained." 



The mode of forcing Asparagus chiefly consists in digging 

 deep trenches 



between beds Fig. 297. 



planted for the 

 purpose, covering 

 the beds with the 

 soil and with 

 frames, filling in 

 the trenches be- 

 tween the beds 

 ■with stable ma- 

 nure, and pro- 

 tecting the frames 

 in the heat. 



Preparation for forcing Asparagus. The trenches 

 are dug out and filled with stable manure, the earth 

 being heaped on the beds. These are covered with 

 rough frames, up to the edge of which the heating 

 material is piled. 



with straw mats and litter to keep 

 In the beginning of November the pathways 

 between the beds of Asparagus are dug up about two feet 

 deep, and as much wide. Divide the soil coming from the 

 pathway very carefully, and put about eight inches thick of 

 it on the surface of the bed. Fill up the trench with good 

 new horse-dung, and place frames on the bed. The manure 

 should rise as high as the top of the frames, and the lights 

 be entirely covered with mats and litter to prevent the heat 

 accumulated in the frame from escaping. About a fort- 

 night or three weeks after, the Asparagus begins to show 

 itself on the surface of the bed. Many market gardeners 

 cover the whole of the bed inside of the frame to a thick- 

 ness of three or four inches with dung to force more 



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