HORTICULTURAL SOClKTY OF LONDON. 



289 



vary from twenty to forty, and even more than sixty feet in 

 length. In constructing these beds, no previous preparation 

 save that of digging and raking is had recourse to ; it being im- 

 material whether the previous crop has been Maize (Indian Corn), 

 Lettuce, Capsicum or Tomatoes. The seed is sown in March, in 

 drills about two inches deep, eighteen inches distant from the 

 alleys ; leaving a space of two feet between the drills, which are 

 consequently only two in number, running invariably E. and W. 

 As soon as the plants have attained about six inches of growth, 

 they are carefully thinned by hand to something more than one 

 foot apart ; the young plants thus taken up being carefully re- 

 planted in a similar bed ready for their reception ; where they are 

 watered by one of the rills before mentioned being made to pass 

 over the bed at least once a day, during the summer months after 

 their removal. A similar watering is given to the seedling bed, 

 the water being slowly and carefully caused to pass between the 

 rows, and even round each plant. In the month of March follow- 

 ing, the beds are covered with from three to four inches of fresh 

 night soil, which is lightly dug in after the plants have ceased 

 to vegetate in the autumn of the second year. 



I must 'make a digression to explain the facility with which the 

 manure alluded to is procured. After the memorable siege of 

 San Sebastian in 1813, the city was burnt to the ground, and the 

 New Town being rebuilt on the levelled ruins of the old, it was 

 found next to impossible to construct sewers, which must neces- 

 sarily have been carried through vast masses of obstructing ma- 

 sonry. Every house therefore has a cistern below the level of the 

 street, into which all impurities find their way ; these, according to 

 municipal regulations, are emptied once a year, poisoning the air 

 for many days, jocosely termed by the inhabitants (to whom 

 custom has rendered this abomination endurable) " las flores de 

 Marzo" the flowers of March : the peasantry of Loyola are the 

 pri\ileged people to cart away this valuable manure. 



In the end of April or beginning of May in the third year, the As- 

 paragus in the seedling beds is fit to cut. Previous to this, vegetable 

 matter brought down by the swelling of the river in March and 

 early in April, when the snows melt from the mountains, and which 

 consists almost entirely of leaves, is laid as lightly as possible 

 over the entire surface ot the beds, about eight inches deep. As 

 soon as the plants peep through this covering, the cutting com- 

 mences by laying bare the stems ; the leaves being carefully -re- 

 moved from around each stem by hand, thereby permitting the 

 selection of the finest shoots, which are rendered from their leafy 

 covering perfectly white and tender. As soon as the plants begin 

 to wither, this vegetable covering is removed, to be renewed each 

 year as long as the bed is in bearing. Night soil of the same 

 thickness as before is again laid on every year, with this differ- 

 ence, that its application is autumnal during the after culture. 



