CHICCORY, AND OTUER FLESHY ROOTS. 



517 



they are fit to gather for use, as they will then be six or seven inches in 

 length. In gathering them, draw aside a little of the mould, slip down the 

 hnger and thumb, and twist them off from the crown. This is a better 

 method than to cut them ; at least it is less dangerous to the rising buds, 

 which come up in thick succession, and might be wounded by the knife, if 

 cutting were practised. The roots, after they have furnished a crop, are 

 considered useless for future culture, because no leaves having been allowed 

 to develop themselves, of course no buds could be formed for the succeed- 

 ing year. If the pit in which asparagus is forced be twenty-five feet to 

 thirty feet long, it will be enough for the supply of an ordinary family to 

 fill one-half at a time. If the second half be planted when the shoots in the 

 first half are fit for use, and so on, a constant succession may be kept up in the 

 same pit for any length of time required. In some gardens asparagus is 

 gro\vn in beds cased with pigeon-holed brickwork, with alleys betw^een two 

 feet wide and two feet deep, which are filled with hot dung, and frames are 

 put over the beds. This, however, is an expensive mode, and w^e are not 

 aware of any advantage which it has over Mr. Lindegaard's practice of 

 merely deepening the alleys to about three and a half feet, and filling them 

 up with hot dung, covering the beds with litter, over wdiich hoops for sup- 

 porting mats should be placed ; or any other means of protection should be 

 adopted that may best prevent the effects of cold at night, or of rain and 

 sleet, or snow, either of which would rob the ground of much of its acquired 

 warmth from the linings. Beds treated in this manner in December will 

 produce a crop in four or five weeks, which will last for five or six weeks. 

 After the crop is gathered, the dung is removed from the alleys, which are 

 then filled to the brim with rich soil, for the roots to strike into. Asparagus 

 plants forced in this manner are injured, but in three seasons they will 

 be restored and may be forced again successfully. When asparagus is 

 forced in this manner later in the season, much less dung is required, and 

 the plants are proportionately less injured. — [Hort. Trans, vol. v. p. 509.) 



1097. Sea-kale may be forced exactly in the manner above described for 

 asparagus ; but a less degree of heat is required, for the sea-kale naturally 

 shoots up early in spring, while the buds of the asparagus are much later in 

 appearing. The asparagus requires to be grown four years from the seed be- 

 fore it is fit to force, and hence Mr. Lindegaard's mode, by which the plants are 

 not destroyed, is the best where practicable ; but as the sea-kale can be forced 

 at two years' growth, and the plants are consequently less valuable, there is 

 less objection to taking them up, forcing them, and throwing them away. 

 Mr. Errington plants a certain number of rows of sea-kale every spring, three 

 feet apart, and the plants fifteen inches distant in the rows ; the plants having 

 been raised from seed the previous year in a drill. The roots are taken up for 

 forcing as soon as the leaves are decaying, with much care ; and as much as 

 possible removed entire, as the root is of course a magazine of nourishment for 

 the incipient bud. The main stock is then ' laid in by the heels,' and covered 

 w^th litter until w^anted. In the mushroom- house there is a pit or trench 

 sunk below the level of the floor-line about four feet : this furnishes room in 

 the length of the house for about four successive ages ; and the second lot of 

 roots is introduced the moment the first begins to bud, and so on with the 

 rest. Fermenting matter, viz., dung and leaves mixed, is placed about two 

 feet six inches deep, under the roots, taking care to have bottom-heat 

 enough ; as, if that becomes too hot, the heat can easily be reduced with 



