On the Cultivation of Asparagus. 235 



and a half below the surface; and these drills, 18 inches 

 apart, to admit of cleaning without damaging the plant. 

 The seeds should not be sown too thick. If the summer 

 proves dry, a good watering about once a week or fortnight 

 will be of great benefit. 



The next season prepare a piece of good land, unincum- 

 bered with trees, and that lies well for the sun ; give it a 

 good dressing of well reduced horse-dung from six to ten 

 inches thick, all regularly spread over the surface ; then 

 proceed with the trenching (if the soil will admit) two feet 

 deep ; after this first trenching it should lie about a fortnight 

 or three weeks, and then be turned back again, and then 

 again in the same space of time ; by this process the dung 

 and mould become well incorporated : it may then be laid in 

 small ridges till the time of planting. This work should all 

 be performed in the best weather the winter will afford, 

 that is, not while it rains, or snow is lying on the ground, 

 as it would tend to make the land heavy and sour ; all this 

 is to be particularly attended to, as the preparation of the 

 soil is of more consequence than all the management after- 

 wards. At the time of planting, I always spread over the 

 ground another thin coat of very rotten dung, and point it 

 in half a spade deep, making my beds three feet wide only, 

 with two feet of alleys, so that three rows of grass, one foot 

 apart, are all I plant on each bed ; I find this to be the best 

 method, as by this plan there is not the least trouble in 

 gathering, whereas you are obliged to set a foot on one of 

 the wide beds, before you can get at all the grass, to the 

 great injury of the bed and the buds under the surface. 



My time of planting is when I observe the plants are 



