FORCING 



29 



arranged under the beds, with the same running round 

 the pits or house, and a very steady heat maintained, 

 at first allowing only such heat as might be engendered 

 by a little sunshine. 



Time should be given for this work, for hasty forcing 

 means weakly growths, and weakly growths mean a 

 poor result. One of the best places to force asparagus 

 slowly and well is in the tomato-house, and I know a good 

 many market growers who have from three to twelve 

 houses, each about ninety feet long, half unused during 

 part of every year. Such houses are generally span- 

 roofed, with beds on either side, and a walk, of course, 

 through the centre. Some houses have borders about 

 three feet wide, the pipes in some cases going round 

 the houses, though in others running on either side of 

 the walk. Here there is no bottom heat, and none is 

 really required. Were these borders filled with well- 

 prepared three-year-old asparagus plants, I question if 

 anything would pay the grower better. Yet many people 

 scarcely know what to put in their houses after the 

 tomatoes are over, to occupy them till the houses are 

 again required in the spring. To force asparagus thus 

 is so simple that any novice when once instructed could 

 do the work, as it is unlike any other crop with which I 

 am acquainted. Nearly all market gardeners grow much 

 the same things, hence gluts. Thus there is in the 

 autumn a glut of chrysanthemums, all growers more or 

 less complaining about the prices ; and now that every 

 one is growing narcissi and daffodils the same com- 

 plaint is anticipated ; but I think that to supply all our 

 markets with forced asparagus till they become glutted 

 is a consummation of the distant future. There is one 

 great advantage possessed by asparagus, in that a valu- 

 able quantity can be packed and sent off in small boxes 

 and hampers, the freightage being little in proportion to 

 its value. This makes a considerable difference as com- 



