666 



ASPARAGACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



in a small sandy island in the Oise in France, at which places the soil is a 

 coarse sand, saturated with water at three feet beneath the surface, we are 

 led to conclude, that if the subsoil at the depth of three feet is porous and 

 kept moist in the growing season by the water of an adjoining river or lake, 

 as the hyacinth gardens are in Holland, and the surface strewed over 

 every spring with salt, there will be a union of the most favourable cir- 

 cumstances for growing asparagus to a large size. The soil ought to be 

 trenched at least three feet deep, and a layer of animal manure of some 

 kind, such as good stable-dung, or night-soil, put in the bottom of the trench, 

 and mixed with the soil throughout in trenching ; and if the ground is 

 re-trenched immediately before planting, so much the better. For the conve- 

 nience of management the plants may be grown in beds four feet wide, with 

 alleys between then-i two feet wide. There may be three rows of plants in each 

 bed, the outer rows nine inches from the edge of the bed, and the centre row 

 fifteen inches from the outer rows. To afford the means of keeping the beds 

 of a regular width, a strong oak stake may be driven down in each corner, 

 which will be a guide in stretching the line, when the alleys are to be dug 

 out in autumn, and filled in from the bed in spring. The seed may be sown 

 in drills an inch deep in INIarch, and the plants thinned out to the distance 

 of one foot in the J uly following. A slight crop of radishes and onions may 

 be sown broadcast over the beds the first year, but nothing the second, or in 

 any future year. The fourth year the plants will afford stalks fit to cut. 

 To save time, two year-old plants are sometimes used instead of seeds ; these 

 are either purchased from a nursery, or raised in a seed-bed, and for a 

 bed four and a half feet wide, by six feet long, one quart of seed will be 

 sufficient. If sown to remain, then for three rows in a bed fifty feet in 

 length, half a pint of seed will be necessary. The seed will come up in 

 three weeks. Tlie quantity of plants required is easily calculated. They 

 are planted in the trench manner (728), or in drills (726), in February or 

 March, keeping the crowns of the roots two inches below the surface. The 

 quantity of ground sown or planted, even in the smallest garden, should not 

 be less than a rod, as it requires that extent of plantation to produce a single 

 good dish. For a large family one-eighth of an acre will be requisite ; but 

 five poles, planted with 1600 plants, will yield from six to eight score heads 

 daily for a month. A crop from seed will allow of one stalk from each 

 plant being gathered the third spring ; two stalks the fourth spring, and 

 three or more the fifth ; while a plantation of two-year-old plants trans- 

 planted, will allow of one stalk being cut from each plant the second spring, 

 two the third, and so on. 



1482. Routine culture. — About the middle of October, every year, cut 

 down the decayed stalks of the plants close to the ground, and chop them to 

 pieces in the alleys with the spade, after which stretch the line along the 

 alleys from the stakes placed at the corners, and dig out as much soil, and 

 chopped stalks, as will cover the bed to the depth of three or four inches; 

 previously laying on a layer of stable dung. This is called the winter dress- 

 ing. About the end of March, just before vegetation commences in the 

 roots, the spring dresshig is given, which consists in forking over the surface 

 as deep as the crowns of the plants over the rows, and twice as deep between 

 the rows. Then rake the surface of the beds even, drawing off nearly as 

 much soil into the alleys as had been dug out of them for the winter's dress- 

 ing ; stretching the line as before, and finishing off the edges in a neat and 



