AMERICAN AGKEIKJ CLTURIbT. 
a part of the bed with sea weed or old straw 
six inches deep, and cut the shoots as soon 
as the heads make their appearance. The 
white stalks are very delicate to look at, but 
are astringent to the taste, and for our pal¬ 
ate are worthless. Yet they are highly 
prized by some. The only shoots fit for the 
table are the long green ones, cut just below 
the surface, and cooked the same day they 
are cut. The difference between a fresh 
and stale article is almost as great as with 
peas and green corn. 
CUTTING THE SHOOTS. 
The whole bed should be looked over eve¬ 
ry morning, selecting the shoots that are six 
inches in length, and cutting them just below 
the surface. None should be allowed to 
grow until you are done with the cutting 
for the season. It is necessary to observe 
a due moderation in reaping the crop, as the 
shoots when much cut become progressively 
smaller and less valuable. Hence it is a 
general rule with gardeners never to gather 
asparagus after the peas come into bearing. 
DURATION OF A BED. 
Managed in this way a bed will last many 
years, if not for a life-time. There is a bed 
near us prepared over thirty years ago, and 
for the last twelve years, with which we 
have been acquainted with it, it has produced 
bountifully. We know of another bed, pre¬ 
pared with no special care, that is over forty 
years old. It only runs out with weeds and 
neglect. This should be taken into account in 
preparing a bed. A work that needs doing 
hut once in a life-time, ought to be thorough¬ 
ly done. 
AMOUNT OF PRODUCE. 
We have never accurately measured the 
yield of a bed for a whole season, but from 
our estimate, based upon our own bed, we 
should think eight square rods prepared as 
we have directed, would produce over three 
hundred pounds ayear after the fourth season. 
This would give about five pounds a day for 
the sixty days when it is in season. At ten 
cents a pound, which is the common price 
by the season, the product of the eight 
square rods would be worth thirty dollars, 
and of an acre, six hundred dollars. 
VALUE AS A VEGETABLE. 
But we would not put this article merely 
upon a pecuniary footing. It is not only pal¬ 
atable and nutritious, but possesses certain 
medicinal qualities which make it indispen¬ 
sable in every intelligent and well regulated 
household. If we can forestall the doctor’s 
hill by taking our medicine unconsciously at 
our dinners, it will be found both pleasant 
and profitable. The plant is diuretic, and, 
by its action upon the kidneys, carries off 
the matters prejudicial to the system. Its 
juice contains a peculiar crystalizable sub¬ 
stance, which was discovered by Vanquelin 
and Robiquet, and hamed by them Aspara¬ 
gine. It is hard, brittle, colorless, and in the 
form of rhomboidal prisms—its taste is nau¬ 
seous. This decoction of the plant is some¬ 
times used as a diuretic. As a vegetable it 
is recommended by physicians to all persons 
afflicted with gravel and urinary diseases. It 
comes at a season when the system is prone 
to use this class of medicines from long con¬ 
finement to salt meats and a spare vegetable 
diet. The free use of asparagus will often 
remove the causes of disease. The taste 
for it is easily acquired, and children are al¬ 
most uniformly fond of it when it is proper¬ 
ly cooked, and this leads us to speak of the 
most approved method of 
COOKING ASPARAGUS. 
In the first place, cut off the tough white 
part of the stalks, so that they shall be of 
equal length. Put them into small bundles, 
and boil them from fifteen to twenty min¬ 
utes, according to their age. The addition 
of a quarter of a tea spoonful of saleratus to 
three of water, will preserve the fresh green 
color of the asparagus. A little salt should 
be put into the stew pan. 
Toast slices of bread enough to cover 
the bottom of the vegetable dish. Then 
moisten the toast with a little water from 
the stew pan and butter it. When the as¬ 
paragus is taken up and drained, it is to be 
laid on the toast, and the string removed. 
Serve with melted butter and salt to the 
taste. 
A good bed of this vegetable is a prize in 
any garden, and no family, having once en¬ 
joyed this healthful luxury, will ever con¬ 
sent to live without it. Prepare a good bed, 
and you will always be able to gratify that 
intense longing which we all have in the 
spring for something fresh and green fr®m 
the bosom of the earth. Farmers have all 
the materials for the bed upon their @wn 
premises, and the work can be done at any 
time when the ground is not too deeply frozen. 
Though bones, and sea mud, and salt are de¬ 
sirable, the plant will do well in rich garden 
soil and stable manure. We are quite sure 
that a little labor and capital cannot be put 
to a better use. 
PIGGING HOLES EOE TREES. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
In reading lately an old standard work, (“ The 
American Gardener’s Calendar, by B McMahon,” 
Philadelphia, 1806,) I found some remarks on 
planting trees, which differ somewhat from those 
usually given in horticultural works. Allow me 
to copy a paragraph or two : 
“ A wide circular hole must be dug for every 
tree, capacious enough to receive all the roots 
freely without touching the sides, bat by no means 
of a greater depth than the natural good soil; for if 
you make a deep hole, basin like, into the clay bot¬ 
tom, or unfriendly sub-soil, which is too frequent¬ 
ly done, and plant the roots therein ; even filling 
it around with good earth will not do, for as soon as 
it pushes its roots beyond this, they must enter 
into the bad and unfriendly soil, which will 
not fail to bring on the decay of the most healthy 
tree, and can never afford it suitable juices for 
perfecting delicious fruit; besides, the lodgment 
of water about the roots in this confined basin, in 
wet seasons, will cause the tree to become sick¬ 
ly, and to get overrun with moss, and full of cank¬ 
er.” Page 223. 
And again, “ Should the earth be rather shal¬ 
low, so that you cannot cover the roots a suffi¬ 
cient depth with good soil, you must have some 
hauled for that purpose to where each tree is to 
be planted, or collected to such places from the 
general surface, and bank the roots round therewith ; 
for there is no alternative between planting them 
in the good soil, where the roots can take a wide- 
extended horizontal direction, and lie within the 
reach of the genial influence of heat, rain, dew 
and air, and that of an untimely end, if planted too 
deep.” Page 225. 
Now these remarks strike me as sensible, and 
yet they seem to differ from those in Bridgeman 
x9 
and the Agriculturist for October, in one respect, 
viz., the depth of the hole. You recommend the 
hole to be from two to three feet deep at least. 
McMahon says : “ by no means of greater depth 
than the natural good soil,”' and that even filling 
in with good earth will not do. 
I feel some interest in this matter, because I 
have been setting out some trees this fall. The 
trees were choice and costly, (Apple, &c.,) and I 
prepared the holes very carefully, as I thought. I 
had them dug 4* to 6 feet across, and feet deep. 
The sub-soil is a tough tenacious clay, and the 
holes held water like a tub. T filled in 18 inches 
of good earth before I set the trees, and then set 
them from 1 to 3 inches deeper than when in the 
nursery—trees from 8 to 15 feet high, 4 to 7 
years grafted. Now, if Mr. McMahon is correct, 
did I not spend money for naught in getting such 
deep holes dug! The tough red clay below 
could only be removed with a pick. Have I not 
injured the trees by providing a basin for stand 
ing water? If so, what am I to do ? Drain the 
ground ? The ground is a gentle slope, dry ex¬ 
cept in spring, as clayey grounds generally are. 
Will drains draw any distance on such soils 1 1 
have consulted Munn’s work on draining with but 
little benefit as to the advantage of drains in such 
a soil. 
Perhaps you can give some hints in your valu¬ 
able paper which will be profitable to me as well 
as others. I do not want my trees to die, as 
McMahon predicts they will. 
Yours truly, J. G. Williamson 
Sidney, N. J., Dec. 8, 1856. 
CHAPTERS ON GRAPE CULTURE. 
BY WM. CHORITON. 
[We present below the first of a senes of 
articles on the culture of a fruit which is 
rapidly coming into popular use throughout 
the country. Mr. Chorlton has had not a 
little experience as a grape-grower, both here 
and in Europe, and he is pretty well known 
as the author of the Grape Grower’s Guide, 
Exotic Grapes, &c. As there is little to be 
done with vines at this season, Mr. Chorlton 
has introduced some preliminary and theo¬ 
retical matters, with the intention of here¬ 
after attending from month to month to 
practical details of the treatment of the 
vines. These articles will be especially 
adapted to the wants of those who grow 
grapes on a comparatively limited scale 
—Ed. 
CHAPTER I. 
It is quite probable that the garden of Eden 
contained a grape-vine, and that Adam ate grapes 
equal in quality to those produced by the culti¬ 
vators of the present day. We know that some 
four thousand years ago they were in use, for we 
find that “ Noah began to be an husbandman, and 
planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine.” Fur¬ 
ther on, it is recorded that the spies Moses sent 
into the land of Canaan returned with a bunch so 
large, that “ they bare it between two upon a 
staff.” We have also the evidence of trust¬ 
worthy travelers, that bunches of enormous size 
are produced in many parts of the world, and we 
have indisputable authority that grapes of supe¬ 
rior quality and size are common in many coun¬ 
tries whose inhabitants ’do not receive much 
credit for superior skill in cultivation. Now, al¬ 
though we are slow to believe in the fabulous, 
there is sufficient margin left to show that even 
our best cultivators have made but little head¬ 
way towards perfection, or gained much superi¬ 
ority over the original natural products of the 
