14 



ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



together than they are when grown among the Yines, say ati 

 a distance of about a yard apart. The little trenches are about 

 <a foot wide and 8 inches below the level of the ground — 

 looking deeper, however, from the soil being piled up. 



The young plants are placed in these trenches very care- 

 fully. A little mound is made with the hand in each spot 

 where a plant is to be placed, so as to elevate the crown a 

 little and permit of the spreading out of the roots in a per- 

 fectly safe manner. In fact they seem to be about as parti- 

 cular as regards depositing the young plants in the first 

 instance, as a good Grape-grower is about his young Yines. 

 They plant in March and April— using any kind of manure 

 that can be had, but chiefly here, so far as I could see, the 

 refuse of the town — the ashes, old vegetables, rags, and other 

 matters, that the people throw before their doors, and which 



This figure shows tlie mode of planting and the depth of the successive annual 

 earthings given tc the Asparagus, as grown in France. After four or five 

 years' growth the ridges disappear, and the highest points of the ground are 

 those over the crowns of the roots. 



the dust-carts take away in the morning. They are very par- 

 ticular to destroy weeds, and they also take good care to 

 destroy all sorts of insect enemies in the mornings, espe- 

 cially during the early summer. Between the lines of Aspa- 

 ragus they plant small growing crops on the little ridges 

 during the first years of the plantation, but are careful not to 

 put the large vegetables there, which would shade and other- 

 wise injure the plants. "When they plant, they spread a hand- 

 ful or so of thoroughly-rotten manure over each root, and they 

 repeat this every year, removing the soil very carefully in the 

 autumn down to the roots, putting on them a couple of hand- 

 fuls of rotten manure, and spreading the earth over again, so 

 that the rain is continually washing nutriment to the roots. 

 When doing this, they notice the state of the young roots, and 

 where a plant has. perished, or has done little good, they place 

 a slick, and replace the plant the following March. Early every 



