160 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
18 inches, and covered the bottom with six or 
eight inches of good well-rotted barn-yard ma¬ 
nure, gently pressing it down with my hoe to 
make it more compact. This was covered slight¬ 
ly with the lop earth laken from the ditch or bed. 
Now, to prevent the sides from caving or lading 
in, I took thin planks, six or eight inches in 
width, (good substantial fence boards will answer 
the purpose,) and after rabbeting the sides to lit 
the curbing planks to their place, I secured the 
whole by means of stakes driven into the ground 
arwl well nailed. The curbing was left a little 
above the outside surface. The seeds were now 
planted, about one foot apart each way, two or 
three seeds to a hill, to prevent a failure. This 
should be done as early in the Spring as the 
ground will admit. The bed should be kept clear 
of weeds the first season by means of the hoe. 
After two or three frosts in the Fall, I cut down 
the little delicate asparagus tops evenly with 
the surface, leaving them and any other green 
weeds or vegetables on the ground to rot, cover¬ 
ing the whole with a light coat of well-rotted ma¬ 
nure. 
Early the next Spring, after the frost was fairly 
out of the ground, I took an old dull-tined fork and 
forked the ground all over, carefully avoiding the 
little roots. Now, to assist in keeping down the 
weeds and save the labor of hoeing, I covered the 
whole bed slightly over with salt. If the seed is 
good, the next Fall the bed will be covered with 
a thrifty growth of asparagus, two or three feet 
in height; and after two or three frosts it must 
he cut down again and burnt on the ground. It 
will now bear a good coat of manure. The next 
or third Spring it should be carefully forked over 
as before, and covered with a coat of bulk or 
packing salt, sufficient to keep out every weed 
till late in the season, when the asparagus will 
have run up to seed, and the few weeds which 
may have sprung up will do little or no injury. 
This process of cutting and burning the tops 
in the Fall, on the bed, after a few hard frosts, 
and richly manuring the bed, and the Spring fol¬ 
lowing forking and salting, must be performed 
annually. 
Some writers have recommended the use of 
hen dung to enrich an asparagus bed. I have 
tried that repeatedly, but with no visible good re¬ 
sults. For the last five years I have used nothing 
but a heavy coat of apple-tree leaves on my deep 
bed. It has worked well. The only inconven¬ 
ience that I have experienced from the use of 
this kind of manure, has been that some of the 
stalks cume up a little crooked and out of shape ; 
one Fall and Wiuter being insufficient for rotting 
the leaves. But before the close of Summer ihey 
are completely rotted, and the bed is light and 
mellow as an ash heap. Ttie asparagus is grow¬ 
ing larger and larger from year to year. 
When an asparagus bed is made in front of a 
building, or board fence, (which is a good position,) 
it should he at such a distance as not to endan¬ 
ger the same. My first bed, which is six feet in 
width, I have found, by experience, is about two 
feet and a hall too wide , for, on cutting the aspar¬ 
agus for cooking, I am often under the necessity 
of treading with one foot on the bed, which is in¬ 
jurious, and frequently a large stalk, just peep¬ 
ing out of the ground, is crushed and spoiled. 
A bed three feet and a half wide, and six rods 
long, (and in that propottion,) should have at least 
three bushels of bulk or packing salt spread over 
it every year. In that case there is no trouble of 
weeding. 
Asparagus should always be cooked soon after 
it is cut. By keeping it only a few hours, unless 
tightly covered and kept in a cool place, it loses 
much of its delicate flavor. If should be cut I 
when five or six inches high, a very little below 
the surface. All the large stalks, which are not 
tender and brittle, should be pared with a sharp 
knife, as we pare the potato, and the whole cut 
up into little pieces not more than an inch oi two 
long It is now boiled in a small quantity of wa¬ 
ter, a little salted. Only sufficient water should 
be retained to make a rich gravy, by the addition 
of butter, which is indispensable. To this may 
be added a few slices of nicely toasted bread, for 
those who are fond of it. 
Skreno Wright. 
Granville, 0., Feb. 19, 1857. 
Note.—I n a letter dated May 12th, Mr. Wright speaks 
of finecuttings from the bed made in 18191 
PINCHING. 
The new shoots are now making rapid 
progress. On young trees, where wood is 
the great want, you will of course let them 
run, nipping only those shoots that would 
mar the symmetry of the tree. But on those 
of larger growth, where fruit is the one 
thing needful, you can cheek the growth of 
all the shoots except a few leaders, by pinch¬ 
ing off the ends. If this is done seasonably, 
it tends to throw the sap into the formation 
of fruit buds,for the next year, and there is no 
waste in the energies of the tree in forming 
wood, only to be cut off. Early bearing is 
induced, and a more symmetrical head is 
formed. This is the proper time to attend 
to this important part of tree husbandry. 
The same practice should 
be pursued with many of 
the shrubs and felooming 
plants of the flower bor¬ 
der and lawn, and is ex¬ 
tensively practised upon 
pot plants cultivated in 
houses. Not unfrequent- 
ly does the leader itself 
require pinching back to 
give the plant a bushy 
habit, rather than a tall 
slim growth. The opera¬ 
tion is a simple one, as the shoots are of 
the present season's growth. 
BLACK KNOT ON PLUM TREES. 
“ What is the matter, neighbor, with your plum 
trees 1 Many of the limbs are dead, and black ex¬ 
crescences adorn the rest, as if plums were dried 
on to them.” 
“ I cannot tell anything about it. They keep 
growing, and where the knots flourish, the plums 
don’t. What is to be done 1” 
There is a remedy for your trees, and now is 
the time to apply it. If you will examine the 
limbs a little more closely, you will find, proba¬ 
bly, the bark swelling and bursting in places 
three, four, six inches in length. If these are ne¬ 
glected. they will make black knots another year. 
Cut these diseased places out with a sharp knife, 
and cut clear into the wood, below the diseased 
part. Remove all the old warts from the small 
limbs. Follow up this treatment, and if the dis¬ 
ease has not made great progress, you will give 
your trees a new lease of life. 
Gather fruits in dry weather, and when the sun 
shines, and place them as carefully in the basket 
as if they were glass. The smallest bruise com¬ 
mences a decay 
PRUNING, 
The middle and latter part of this month is a 
good time to use the pruning knife in the Orchard 
and Nursery, and upon shade trees and shrubbery. 
The sap which ascended in the Spring has been 
elaborated by the leaves and is now in a proper 
condition to form woody fibre, which will soon 
entirely close over the wound, leaving it in a 
healthy state. It is objected to Summer pruning 
that the hot sun is liable to crack the wound and 
admit water into the heart of the tree. The thick 
foliage will in a great measure, shade the wounds 
from the sun, and where large limbs are necessa¬ 
rily removed, the exposed surface should be 
coated with gum shellac disolved in alcohol to 
the consistance of paint, or with cloth dipped in 
melted grafting wax. 
We should prefer going into the 
Orchard with no other pruning in¬ 
strument than the knife here in- 
tioduced; that is to say: trees 
should be so trained and pruned in 
the nursery and during the first 
years of Orchard culture, that a 
knife of this kind will ever after¬ 
wards do the business. Have an 
eye to the full grown tree, and 
cut out the cross branches to form 
a moderately open head, both to 
admit air and afford room lor gath¬ 
ering the fruit. If, however, 
through your own or others’ neg¬ 
lect, large limbs require taking off, 
do it neatly wiih a saw, not an 
ax, guarding against spilling 
when the limb falls, and after par¬ 
ing the wound smoothly, coat with 
the above mixture. We have 
often seen trees, especially the 
taller growing varieties of Cherry 
so pruned that stubs six to ten inches long were 
left for the ostensible purpose of a ladder to climb 
upon. This is an unsigbily and highly injurious 
practice. The old stub will very soon decay, and 
the new growth ofeach year will be “rolled ” upon 
it instead of healing over as it would, were the 
limb taken off close to the body of the tree. When 
cut at a distance from the trunk, the stub com¬ 
mences to rot, and often extends to the heart of 
the tree which in-course of tune leaves a hole 
for the rain to enter and hasten the decay. 
Many former fruit growers injured, or entirely 
ruined their trees by excessive pruning at improp¬ 
er seasons. The first settlers, especially from the 
moist climate of England, were disposed to cut 
away the branches of large trees, to let in the sun 
and air which they believed essential to ripen off 
the fruit, either forgetting, or being ignorant of 
the fact that in our hot, dry atmosphere, a good 
supply of foliage is essential to screen the trunk 
and bodies of the limbs from the burning sun. 
Especially should the spurs upon young pear trees 
be left lor this purpose ; and low branching trees 
are better on this account. By repeatedly cutting 
away large branches from the tree, the balance 
between root and top is destroyed, too much sun 
strikes upon the unprotected wood, and if, as is 
too frequently the case, the pruning is done in 
early Spring, the cut does not sear over sufficient¬ 
ly to check the flow of sap as it ascends the 
trunk and pushes towards the leaf buds. The 
energies of the tree are thus sensibly diminished 
and decay commences at the wounds caused by 
pruning. 
We consider the “leafing out time” as the 
worst season for pruning, and late Winter, or 
early Spring as the next most objectionable pe¬ 
riod. July and August are good months, and the 
process may very well be extended to October. 
