ASPARAGINOUS PLANTS.— ASPARAGUS. 



123 



produced by Mr Foster, a market-gar- 

 dener at Winchester, whose ground was 

 liable to be overflowed by the river Itch en 

 through the winter and spring ; and so 

 much did this affect the crop, that he 

 used to cut heads of good size four weeks 

 before it was produced in the neighbour- 

 hood of London, and five weeks earlier 

 than we cut at Stratton Park, at a distance 

 of only eight miles. The soil should not 

 be less than 3 feet in depth ; and where 

 it is not naturally so, it were better to 

 elevate the beds to that extent by adding 

 to their surface, even by leaving the alleys 

 wider, and taking a portion of the soil 

 out of them for the purpose. A deep 

 alluvial soil is excellent ; a strong reten- 

 tive clayey one the worst possible, and 

 quite unsuitable if not rendered dry at 

 bottom. As to manures, whatever they 

 may be, salt should be incorporated 

 with them, and they should be of the 

 most lasting description, such as ground 

 bones ; and the proper mode of employ- 

 ing them so as to be of the most advan- 

 tage, is by placing them as deep as the 

 roots will penetrate ; and as refreshers, 

 copious applications of the strongest 

 manures, in a liquid form, should be 

 applied during the whole growing season. 



When salt is applied as a top-dressing 

 during the growing season, it may be laid 

 on until the ground is perceptibly white 

 with it; or if by rule, apply 16 lb. to 

 60 square yards of surface, which will be 

 quite sufficient for one dressing. 



Forcing. — By means of slight excite- 

 ment, this excellent vegetable may be 

 kept in successional fitness for the table 

 from the middle of November until it 

 comes in in the open ground. The con- 

 ditions necessary to secure success are, 

 strong healthy roots, from three years 

 growth and upwards — carefully preserving 

 the roots on taking them up — and a tem- 

 perature not exceeding 50° to 60°, with 

 abundance of light and air, after the buds 

 appear above ground. The means em- 

 ployed to effect these conditions are 

 various. First, as to roots : these must 

 be strong and healthy, and hence the sup- 

 ply ought to be grown in the same gar- 

 den ; and to secure them strong, they 

 must be grown in highly-enriched soil. 

 Some cultivators keep up a succession of 

 roots by growing them for the express 

 purpose, and in this case the buds are 



never cut, the plants being allowed to 

 develop themselves fully for two, three, 

 or more years, by which means the roots 

 and buds become earlier ripened in 

 autumn, and also have stored up a much 

 greater amount of properly elaborated 

 matter within themselves, upon which 

 depends so much of the succeeding crop. 

 Plants taken out of the ground in Octo- 

 ber or November, and placed in a state 

 even of very moderate excitement, have 

 not time to furnish themselves with fresh 

 fibres, whereby to supply the roots with a 

 sufficiency of food. The crop, therefore, 

 depends on the amount of properly elabo- 

 rated organisable matter provided for 

 them during the previous season. This 

 is the reason why a rich-manured soil is 

 dispensed with, and a light sandy one 

 preferred, in which to imbed the roots 

 during the process of forcing, and also 

 why the roots are afterwards thrown 

 away. From this it follows that the 

 greatest possible care should be taken to 

 preserve every portion of the roots at 

 lifting, as each, however small it may be, 

 contains a certain amount of the material 

 so essential in the development of the 

 buds ; and as they are prized according 

 to their size, every curtailment of the 

 roots is a certain loss to the crop. 



By far the most usual mode of forcing 

 asparagus is to place the roots on a mode- 

 rate heat, either produced by fermenting 

 material, such as dung, leaves, tan, &c, 

 or on beds heated by hot-water pipes, 

 steam, smoke-flues, tanks, &o. Of these 

 the latter is decidedly the best mode, as 

 affording a steady yet sufficient heat, com- 

 bined with a greater share of humidity at 

 the roots, as steam will find its way more 

 readily through the joints of a stone or 

 slate-covered tank, than through the 

 closer joints of a hot- water or steam 

 apparatus. It is true, any quantity of 

 water can be supplied to the roots in the 

 other cases, as described p. 447, vol. i., in 

 the case of the roots of cucumbers ; still 

 there is something so genial in the heat 

 of a tank, when the roots are in proximity 

 to it, that it seems to approach nearer to 

 that of heat produced by fermenting 

 material than any other. 



Whichever of these ways may be 

 adopted for securing heat, the surface on 

 which -the roots are to be placed should 

 be prepared of light sandy soil, and on 



