282 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
gritty soil over the crowns, and cut with a proper saw below the 
surface. If vou want tender, juicy, tasty, conie-again flavoured 
green sticks, do not mould the oeda more than enough to fairly 
cover the crowns, let the shoots rise six inches or so above ground, 
and then cut with a knife level with the surface. 
The simplest way to force asparagus is by bringing the heat to 
them, for then the roots are undisturbed, and wdl gain in time and 
size. For this practice the beds sliould be four feet wide, with 
two feet alleys between, and the beds selected for forcing should be 
left uncut in the preceding summer, that they may accumulate the 
strength needed to enable them to endure the trial. The first busi- 
ness is to determine when the first cutting is required, and the later 
it is wanted the better for the plants and the gardener. If you v\ ish 
to cut in January, you must commence operations six weeks in 
adva ice ; if in February, five weeks in advance; if early in March, 
four weeks in advance. The forcing consists in covering the bed 
with litter, and then taking a shallow spit from the alleys and throw- 
ing it equally over the litter. The alleys are then filled with hot 
dung, which must be raised to at least one foot above the level of the 
beds, and when slightly trodden must be covered with boards to 
shut in the heat and keep out the cold and wet. Finally, the beds 
should be covered with six inches depth of the same hot dung. In 
a mild winter the routine may be modified with a view to economy ; 
and, as the season advances, the amount of heating material required 
to start a bed will become less and less. The produce of beds treated 
in this way is necessarily white, and, in our opinion, as unfit for 
eating as blanched rope-yarn ; but it is valued by the poor rich 
people, and it will always pay the gardener to produce it. 
A better quality of forced asparagus, less fat, but green, and 
therefore tender, and with the welcome flavour of a good sample, 
may be obtained by taking up the plants and forcing them in pits 
and frames. It is a very simple business. The plants should be 
taken from beds three or four years old, and planted in light soil on 
well-made hotbeds, or beds heated by hot-water pipes. A gentle 
heat suffices, and indeed the slower the forcing the better the pro- 
duce. As the glass protects the plant from frost, it may enjoy light 
and air, except when the weather is severe, and tlierefore need not 
be much moulded up, the object being to obtain short, plump, dark- 
green shoots of the most tender and richlv-flavoured kind, fit to 
“ set before a king.” A large, deep bed of leaves, with a sufficiency 
of old lights and walls of turf, or loose bricks, or stout boards set on 
edge with pegs to hold them, afi’ord machinery enough for the pro- 
duction of the finest forced asparagus, provided only there is a strong 
plantation of some years’ standing to begin with for the supply of 
stools for the purpose. As a matter of course, the gardener who 
has to provide for a family will take measures to insure a succession, 
but it v.muld be like teaching such an one his A B C again to enter 
into details on the subject. S. 11. 
