ASPARAGUS RAISING, GROAVING, AND I'oRGING. 
45 
wards weeds are removed that have escaped the effects of the salt, but no 
cutting whatever must be allowed. During the second season after planting, 
a sound watering occasionally during dry weather does a great deal of good, 
but unfortunately our water supply at Hatfield will not allow of this. 
When doing away with old beds and using up the roots for forcing, 
a few of the shoots produced may be stronger than those from the three - 
year-old plants, but they are not nearly so numerous, and, taken as a 
whole, they are not so satisfactory. 
The brick bed system has now been in use for many years, and the 
fact that it is so seldom met with is, I think, a proof that it has not many 
or great advantages. At the outset it is expensive to construct. One of 
its few advantages is that tlie shoots are thicker than from lifted roots, 
and it is in season for a period of two months before the outdoor. The beds 
are usually about G ft. wide and 4 ft. deep, to allow a foot for drainage, 
and 3 ft. for soil. The alleys are 18 inches between, and the brickwork 
is 4| inches pigeon-holed, with piers for strengthening it. Before forcing 
begins the beds are covered with several inches of leaf mould, and covered 
over with shutters. The alleys are generally filled with leaves for heating 
the beds. Mr. Wythes, at Syon House, forces Asparagus on this system, 
as also does Mr. Owen Thomas, the Queen's gardener at Windsor, only 
that he has hot-water pipes to heat the beds instead of leaves. 
Asparagus is considered by some the finest vegetable grown. It is 
not only so pleasant to the palate and can be used in so many different 
ways in cooking, but it can also with ease, by forcing and, outdoor culti- 
vation, be had in season for seven months out of the twelve — from 
December to June. The most usual way to send it up to table is as a 
vegetable pure and simple, and for this purpose only the largest shoots 
are used, the small ones finding their way into the soup tureen and 
into many fancy dishes. Every shoot that rises to the surface of the 
ground can be utilised in some way. 
My remarks are, of course, more generally applicable to private 
growers than to market gardeners ; and whatever disadvantages some 
private gardens may have in producing it, they ought certainly to be sur- 
mounted, for to have Asparagus at its best it should be cooked and eaten 
as soon as possible after being cut, as it very quickly deteriorates in flavour 
when once cut. 
For market in this country it can only be grown at a profit under the 
most favourable circumstances of position, soil, and climate. Where 
growers are so happily situated, and have experience in growing it, I 
believe they find it a paying crop ; but from time to time many have 
begun to grow it in places where soil and situation have not been suitable, 
and have been obliged to give it up. 
It is very largely imported into this country from the South of France, 
Italy, and Spain. In the early months of the year the largest and best 
comes from France. Prices vary according to size and demand, some 
giant shoots fetching as much in Covent Garden market as from 10s. and 
12s. to 15s. per 100. Many thousands of cratesfuU are brought over daily, 
and every year the communication from the South of France is quicker, 
and brings it over in better condition. The best home-grown outdoor 
Asparagus is sold in Covent Garden from Is. to 4s. per 100. 
