ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



43 



the expense and inconvenience it gives rise to. It may be 

 performed during the fourth, eighth, and twelfth years. 



Unearthing.— This is the term given by the Argenteuil 

 growers to the operation which consists in taking out the soil 

 from the bottom of the hollows or trenches in which the 

 Asparagus stools are planted and throwing it upon the mound 

 from which it was taken. When first a plantation is made 

 the intermediate mounds have a pretty rapid slope, that is to 

 say, they form an angle of 45° with the perpendicular. It is 

 plain, therefore, that the soil forming their sides will gradu- 

 ally tend to fill up the intervening hollows, either from the 

 action of the rain or from the constant weedings with or 

 without the use of the hoe. Commencing with the autumn 

 immediately following the first planting we must begin to 

 unearth, that is to say, to clear out of the trenches the soil 

 which has fallen into them from the sides of the mounds, and 

 also remove from above the stools a portion of that with 

 which they were covered at the time they were planted, say 

 to the depth of 1 J in. or so, so that the action of the frost 

 may open the soil and that the rain may penetrate and im- 

 prove it, also that during the first fine days of spring the 

 sun may warm the surface of the soil and penetrate as far as 

 the stool. Under the old-fashioned system the contrary 

 operation took place. The trenches were filled with manure 

 and stable litter for fear that the action of the frost should 

 kill the plants. This is an error which has luckily long been 

 exploded. The Asparagus will never freeze as long as the- 

 stool is covered with a layer of soil of 1^ in. to If in. in depth. 



Earthing up the Mounds.— Earthing -up operations 

 should be commenced at the beginning of March. This 

 operation consists in taking out the soil which was thrown 

 into the trenches at the end of the preceding autumn and 

 restoring it to the sides of the mounds. Some growers 

 divide this operation into two parts, one being performed in 

 March and the other in April, so as not to interfere with the 

 warming up of the earth by the solar rays, for when it is 



