506 



ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



vegetable differs from our own diametrically in giving each 

 plant abundant room to develope into a large healthy speci- 

 men^ in paying thoughtful attention to the plants at all 

 times_, and in planting in a hollow instead of a raised bed, 

 so that as the roots grow up they may have annual dress- 

 ings of enriching manure. They do not, as we do, go to 

 great expense in forming a mass of the richest soil far be- 

 neath the roots, but rather give it at the surface, which is con- 

 sistent with the natui'e of the root. And in this way they 

 beat us with Asparagus as thoroughly as Messrs. Meredith, 

 Henderson, or Miller, beat them with hothouse grapes. A 

 man who knows how to spend two and a half francs for his 

 dinner in Paris enjoys Asparagus for a longer time and of 

 much better quality than many a nobleman in England with a 

 bevy of gardeners. In the first-class restaurants you usually 

 pay high for Asparagus, as you do for all other vegetables, 

 but it is served very cheaply in many respectable ones — so 

 much so, indeed, that it is partaken of by all classes. 



As the culture of this vegetable is so important, and the 

 French manage it so well, I venture to go further into 

 detail by giving the following account, written by a Avell- 

 known and very successful cultivator of Argenteuil, and first 

 published in the Gardener's Chronicle. I have made some 

 few alterations, with a view to rendering the meaning 

 simpler and clearer to the reader : — 



"Preparation of the Ground. — When a convenient piece 

 of ground has been selected, it is first of all to be mellowed 

 by spreading on its surface a good dressing of horse or 

 sheep manure. The ground is to be dug up to a depth of 

 sixteen inches in fine weather at the beginning of winter, 

 during which season it is to be left at rest. In the month 

 of February following — at least, as soon as severe frost is no 

 longer to be expected — the ground is to be laid out in 

 furrows and ridges, in order to shape shelving beds, and the 

 excavations which are to receive the plantations. For this 

 purpose the following operations are to be performed. 

 First, there are to be drawn the whole length of the ground, 

 and by preference from north to south, two lines, leaving 

 between them a space of fourteen inches, intended for the 



