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ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



— I have for many years been of opinion that people poison 

 their Asparagus with manure, and many people will not grow 

 it on account of the supposed expense attending its produc- 

 tion. I quite agree with the distances apart, plant from plant 

 and row from row, given in The Garden, and think it high 

 time that cultivators and others did away with the fallacy that 

 Asparagus requires any more attention than a plot of Cab- 

 bages or Broccoli. Periodical saltings and annual diggings 

 of deep trenches between the beds do no good. The principal 

 thing to be observed in growing Asparagus on the Argenteuil 

 system is the preparation of the ground. Asparagus being a 

 permanent crop, the ground should be dug or trenched at least 

 2 ft. deep, and never moved with the spade when in a wet or 

 unfriable condition. Of course, in alluvial or sandy light soils 

 the trenching just spoken of may be dispensed with, but 

 depend upon it in about three parts of the soils of great 

 Britain a preliminary trenching will ensure success. I have 

 tried Connover's Colossal and find it only the ordinary form of 

 Asparagus when treated under the usual conditions. I have 

 no doubt that larger kinds than any yet grown may be pro- 

 duced, by means of selection, in localities where the plant 

 grows best. I have noticed that Asparagus grown on the 

 oolite in Northamptonshire is very green, and the tops 

 not over large, but delicious in flavour. Some years ago, when 

 living at Burton-on-Trent, some Asparagus sowed itself 

 adjoining the kitchen garden in a piece of waste ground of 

 a gravelly alluvial character, and this came much larger and 

 finer than the same kind under cultivation buried 6 in. deep in 

 strong pig manure. Ever since then (twenty years ago) I have 

 seen the disadvantage of using so much manure. I do not 

 agree with disturbing the surface Asparagus beds any more 

 than is sufficient to ensure the destruction of weeds. All 

 clayey soils should be trenched, preparatory to planting, but 

 this may not be always necessary in the case of light ones. 

 Stapleford Hall, Notts, "W. Elliott. 



