THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
2/9 
The books begin by saying that asp tragus needs a very deep, 
sandy, bigblv-manured soil ; and they follow with elaborate direc- 
tions, all tending to render this comparatively wortliless vegetable 
one of the most costly that can be taken into or out of the boun- 
daries of a garden. Having grown asparagus of the finest quality 
and in great abundance under a great variety of circumstances, I 
am bound to say of the plant that it is the most accommodating in 
its nature, and needs but a small amount of attention to show the 
best behaviour and be easily understood. Three things are requisite 
for the production of good asparagus — a well-drained friable soil, an 
open sunny situation, periodical top-dressings with common salt. 
Before attempting to sketch out a code of asparagus culture we will 
briefly describe recent operations of our own, for “facts are cliiels 
that wiuna ding.” 
In the spring of 1870 we sowed two rows of asparagus seed 
in a piece of ground occupied with raspberries, in the fashion 
of what we call a “stolen crop.” In the spring of 1871 we 
prepared two beds, each fifty feet in length by six feet wide. The 
ground was trenched two spits deep, and a heap of sweepings from 
the poultry-house, saved for the purpose, was spread over and 
slightly forked in. The earth was then taken out of the alleys 
adjoining and thrown on the beds, and they were thus roughly 
reduced to about five feet in width. The plants from the previous 
year’s sowing were carefully lifted and planted in May in rows one 
foot apart and the plants one foot asunder in the row, and the beds 
were then carefully cut to four and a-half feet in width, the crumbs 
from the alleys being spread over them. The beds were kept clear of 
weeds, and the asparagus stems were removed in the autumn, and a 
top-dressing put on of sweepings from the poultry-house, saved for the 
purpose. In March, 1872, the beds were slightly pricked over with 
a small fork to loosen the top crust and destroy rising weeds, and 
then a mixture of fifty-six pounds of salt and an equal bulk of dry 
earth was spread over their surface. The growth that followed was 
tremendous, not a weed appeared ; in fact, not a weed could have 
lived with such a growth of asparagus to crush it. In the spring of 
1873 another dressing of salt was given, and a still more vigorous 
growth followed. We began to cut early and left off cutting in the 
last week of May, taking from the beds an immense supply of fat, 
green asparagus of the most delicate texture and delicious flavour. 
In the autumn of 1873 the plants stood six feet high, making a 
dense mass of herbage over the bed, and saying, as plainly as they 
could speak, “ We want more room.” Therefore two more beds in 
another garden were prepared for them. For this purpose a piece 
of pasture on a heavy, clay-like loam was broken up. The ground 
was first trenched two spits deep, and a great body of vegetable 
refuse of the nature of coarse hay — the result of trimming up with 
scythe and sickle amongst long grass, and such weeds as “ fat hen,” 
etc., etc. — was laid between the two spits. Then fifty barrow-loads 
of lime and plaster rubbish, mixed with an equal quantity of rotted 
grass mowings and grit from the rubbish-yard, was spread on the 
surface. The next thing was to lift and plant. When lifted, the 
September. 
