f) SUGGESTIONS ON ELECTRICITY. 87 \y 
I 
moist heat in their growing season, and it is indispensiblc to their proper management. Pelargoniums, 
again, Calceolarias, and many more soft-wooded plants will grow in a low temperature, but the large 
specimens produced by Mr. Cock and Mr. Parker will rarely have less than fifty degrees of heat from 
February until they are in bloom. Fancy Pelargoniums require more heat to grow them properly 
than the show kinds ; a low temperature with much moisture is certain death to them ; and we 
recollect the time when the Cape species were grown as stove plants. The mistake, however, which 
persons not versed in plant management fall into, is that of not discriminating between a little addi- 
tional heat and too much; and hence the great importance of an intermediate house ; a sort of cool 
stove and warm greenhouse ; a place where a vast number of occupants of both places, as well as 
many Orcliids, grow to perfection. A house, however, where greenhouse plants are grown, must not 
be a close house, the temperature must be kept up to the required heat, but at the same time it must 
be freely ventilated da}- and night, at least in favourable weather. From February until July young 
growing specimens of the plants we have enumerated, and many more, require such treatment, and 
they will make double the progress they could do under the cool system ; and that if they are properly 
ventilated without making long-jointed wood ; in fact, the growth will be short, strong, and healthy, 
but if you give too much heat, shade, or atmospheric moisture, your object will be defeated. — A. 
Asparagus Culture. — "A fair crop of heads must be left after four or five weeks' cutting, but not 
one head must be allowed to grow until you leave off cutting at the end of the [season] fourth year." 
— Gard. Chron., p. 84. — This is one of those blunders which we frequently see handed down by 
unreasoning people from generation to generation, and is the prolific source of the blanks we frequently 
see in Asparagus beds, not only in market gardens, but also in those of private gentlemen, for whether 
the plants be weak or strong, it matters not, cut every stem must be, until the arbitrary rules of blind 
practice are satisfied ; and the consequence is, the weak plants are so completely exhausted as not to 
have the power to produce another shoot, and hence a blank occurs in the bed. AVc all know, at 
least every gardener ought to know, that the largest free in creation could be destroyed by a constant 
removal of the young foliage as fast as it was produced. It is the best system to eradicate deep-rooting 
weeds of all kinds; even Horseradish, Bindweed, Couch, and Thistles must yield to the constant 
destruction of their foliage ; and yet, to a certain extent, we pursue precisely the same system with one 
of our most delicate and useful vegetables. AVe know an instance where a gardener, who was acting 
under the directions of his employer — a reader of the journal quoted above — completely destroyed 
his Asparagus beds, by following the directions too implicitly ; for he cut every shoot throughout the 
season. The right way to pursue is, to cut every shoot for the first fortnight or three weeks ; then 
when the supply is plentiful, leave one or two of the strongest shoots to each plant, and continue 
cutting so long as the grass is fit for use, for after a month or five weeks' cutting, the grass becomes 
stringy, a proof that it is time to leave off. After this destroy the very weak shoots, but leave 
sufficient strong ones thinly over the beds, and attached to each plant, to replace and store up for the 
succeeding season sufficient matter for the healthy action of the plants. It is not advisable, however, 
to crowd the plants; a few strong shoots to each plant, properly exposed to light and air, will be 
superior to a multiplicity of small ones; and the small shoots, if they have not sufficient room, will be 
better removed than left to deprive the others of light and air. A\Tiat with chopping the roots off 
every season, and exposing the perpendicular sides of the beds to the drying influence of the sun and 
air, and cutting every shoot until the plants cease to produce shoots fit for market, the Asparagus has 
but a poor time of it in our market gardens, and must be classed among the most ill-used plants; but 
a better system of planting is gaining ground, and though the grass may not be quite so early as where 
it is forced by the sun's rays impinging upon the perpendicular sides of the beds, it is quite certain 
it will be much superior in quality, and yield a larger supply. No doubt the drumstick quality of 
the London Asparagus, and its want of flavour, is attributable as much to tlte want of moisture, eon- 
sequent upon the deep-bed system as to its being so much blanched; indeed, we have cut Asparagus 
in the Fens of Cambridgeshire perfectly white or blanched, and yet eatable and well flavoured for a 
length of six or seven inches. — A. 
» 
SUGGESTIONS ON ELECTRICITY. 
By Mb. J. TOWERS, Corresponding Member or the Royal Agricultural ,vxn Hobxiculti b u Soctettj 9, 
IT p. 86 (vol. i.), arc these words: — '■ I do not include I'.loctricih : since, all hough it must lie supposed 
X\ to exercise a very important agency over vegetation, we are at present wholly without satisfactory 
data as to the occurrence of electrical phenomena in plants." The following observations and queries 
have been elicited by this passage. 
& 
s%^£L 
