236 On the Cultivation of Asparagus. 



beginning to grow, which is the best time for the plants to 

 succeed ; if moved earlier, as is the practice with most 

 people, they perhaps have to lie torpid for two or three 

 months, which causes many of them to die, or if not, they in 

 general shoot up very weak. 



After having got my plants up, I strain the line and cut 

 down a trench, sloping in the usual way for planting Box, 

 and make choice of all the finest plants, putting them in, 

 one foot apart, and one inch and a half below the surface ; 

 after this is done, I let the alleys and beds lie level till 

 autumn, then dig the alleys out deep enough to get from 

 four to six inches of mould all over the bed, and over this 

 lay a good coat of dung, and fill in the alleys with any long 

 dung I can get. 



The next season, instead of digging out the alleys, I lay 

 on a coat of good rotten dung, three inches thick, and fork it 

 evenly into the beds and alleys, and so on every season after, 

 never digging out the alleys any more, as it is known the 

 Asparagus plant forms a fresh crown every season; and 

 sometimes it happens that in a few years the crown will in- 

 crease almost into the alley, so that by digging out this, 

 you must inevitably spoil that plant ; if this is not the case 

 when the beds are in good condition, the roots will be sure 

 to work out at the sides into the alleys, and by digging out 

 the latter, these roots must be cut off, and you will often 

 see them exposed all the winter before dung can be got to 

 fill them up ; rather than be treated in this way, they had 

 better be without any thing all the winter, as Asparagus does 

 not suffer generally by frost. The first two years I have a 

 very thin crop of Celery plants or Lettuce upon the beds. 



