ASPARAGINOUS PLANTS. — ASPARAGUS. 



119 



with great advantage, retrench the ground 

 again in an opposite direction, to insure 

 a more thorough amalgamation of the 

 soil and manure together. The opera- 

 tion should be, if possible, carried on 

 during winter, but not when the ground 

 is either wet, frozen, or covered with 

 snow, having it ready for planting in 

 March or April for Scotland. The Lon- 

 don market-garden practice is as follows : 

 — " The beds are prepared by putting on 

 an immense quantity of manure, and 

 trenching the ground 3 or 4 feet deep, 

 mixing the manure as the work proceeds. 

 In March the ground is measured out 

 after the following manner: Suppose a 

 fence runs north and south, or otherwise, 

 3 feet is allowed between it and the first 

 row ; a drill is drawn about 2 inches deep, 

 and the seed is sown thinly, say 6 inches 

 or a foot apart, which gives choice of 

 drawing out the weakest, in order that 

 the permanent crop may stand 1 foot 

 apart. The next row is sown 18 inches 

 from the one just mentioned; then for the 

 alley and two sides of the bed 5 feet are 

 allowed ; then another row of seeds, and 

 so on, which gives two rows to each bed. 

 The first year, onions are generally sown 

 all over the ground ; the second season, 

 lettuce, or any dwarf-growing vegetable 

 that will not choke the asparagus; and so 

 on, until the third year, when the beds 

 are formed out, and a few inches of mould 

 dug out of the alleys, and put on the 

 crowns. Only a few, however, of the 

 finest heads are cut this year." — Cuthill 

 in Market-Gardening round London, p. 18. 

 We adopt another plan : — The ground is 

 first thoroughly enriched, by laying with 

 the stableyard manure a considerable por- 

 tion of ground bones, say 2 inches in 

 thickness, not very small, and about half 

 an inch in thickness of rock-salt in the 

 bottoms of the trenches, adding alternate 

 layers of dung, with which salt is incorpo- 

 rated, and soil as the trench nears the top ; 

 and when the whole piece is thus trenched, 

 we proceed to plant in the following 

 manner: For single lines, trenches are 

 taken out 1 foot in depth and 3 feet apart; 

 in these the roots are placed, having been 

 carefully taken from the seed-bed, with 

 their most minute rootlets preserved, and 

 carried to the spot in a shallow basket or 

 planting-tray, and covered over with a 

 little soil — for few plants suffer more than 



this by having their roots exposed to the 

 air. The plants are examined to see that 

 their buds are perfect, and are placed in 

 the trench 14 inches apart, and the roots 

 carefully spread out and covered with the 

 soil, keeping the crowns about half an inch 

 under the finished surface of the bed. 

 When the bed system is followed, the 

 ground is measured off in breadths of 5 

 feet and 2^ feet alternately: the former 

 are the beds, the latter the alleys. Begin- 

 ning at one end of a bed, a trench is taken 

 out across the bed, 12 inches deep, or 

 more if the roots exceed that length, for 

 they should be laid in at their full length. 

 One root is placed in the centre of the 

 trench, and one on each side of it, 15 

 inches from each other. When these are 

 planted, another trench is taken out, of 

 the same dimensions, and 18 inches from 

 the first, and planted in like manner. If 

 the ground is dry, the whole gets a good 

 watering of liquid manure — either diluted 

 cow-urine, or water in which guano has 

 been dissolved at the rate of 6 lb. to 50 

 gallons. The beds are left uncropped, 

 and kept clear of weeds during their 

 growth. Some have planted successfully 

 in May, and even in June, after the plants 

 have attained a considerable size. We 

 mention this, more that advantage may 

 be taken of it to make up any deficiencies 

 that may arise from any of the plants 

 having failed, than with a view of recom- 

 mending it as a general principle. The 

 seeds require about three weeks to germi- 

 nate. The smallest asparagus bed that 

 should be made should contain a rod (272 

 square feet, a little more than 30 square 

 yards) of ground, as upon less than this a 

 dish could scarcely be at any one time 

 gathered. The extent of ground for an or- 

 dinary private family should not be less 

 than 5 poles, which should yield about 

 125 heads daily for four weeks; but for 

 large gardens, from one-eighth to a quar- 

 ter of an acre will be required, exclusive 

 of that which may be taken up yearly for 

 forcing, which in many cases will require 

 as much more. 



In preparing ground for this crop, we 

 have remarked that it cannot be too 

 highly enriched, and that the manurial 

 application should be kept near the bot- 

 tom. This is because the crop may have 

 to remain on the same ground for from 

 seven to ten years, and therefore it 



