42 



ASPAEAGUS CULTURE. 



will spring, as the immediate contact of manure of any kind 

 with them will rust them and render them unsaleable and 

 uneatable. The quantity of manure to be used varies accord- 

 ing to circumstances. In the case of short stable manure, 

 from which all the long straw has been removed, it is applied 

 in a layer of from 1 in. to in. in thickness across the 

 whole width of the trench, or only from 16 in. to 20 in. in 

 length, according to the age of the stools. At Argenteuil 

 a cubic foot of night-soil is used for every five or six 

 stools, that is to say, about a cubic yard for every 140 stools, 

 once in two years. In spring, the soil which was taken 

 during the process of unearthing, is replaced, so that the 

 manure now becomes covered to the depth of from 3 in. to 

 4 in. In manuring the mounds we must begin to open them 

 up as soon as possible, that is to say, towards the end of 

 October. This is effected by cutting a number of trenches 

 14 in. in width and of such a depth as to reach to the 

 bottom of the main trenches without injuring the roots of 

 the plants. The soil which is taken out of these small 

 trenches is deposited in the main trenches between each stool 

 of Asparagus, so placed as not to cover up these latter ; in 

 fact, so that it may be gathered up again when necessary 

 without endangering the young shoots which mark the posi- 

 tion of the stools. These small trenches being made, the 

 manure is thrown into them to a depth of at least 2 J in., the 

 extra soil is replaced, and the mounds are trimmed up. The 

 trenches are opened up either with the flat hoe or with the 

 spade. The flat hoe is the most difficult to manage, but the 

 work is done much quicker than when the spade is used. 

 "We should advise Asparagus growers to use the flat hoe in 

 localities where the soil is pretty free from stones. In stony 

 soils the trenches are somewhat difficult to open up, and we 

 are sometimes obliged to have recourse to the large-toothed 

 fork to stir up the soil, which is afterwards carried away by 

 the shoveL In the latter case we must manure much more 

 generously, and only undertake this operation once every four 

 or five years, in order to avoid a too frequent recurrence of 



