Drckjfber L 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. 
105 
' him use liis covers in winter, in frosty weather, to pre- 
j vent condensation, as well as for shade in spring and 
j summer T. Aim’leby. 
I {To he coiiliinied.) 
1 
t 
I FORCING ASPARAGUS, SEA-KALE, AND 
I OTHER VEGETABLES. 
' There are few things more acceptable at table than 
I good Asi'aragus, and there are few things more easily to 
\ obtain in winter, provided the summer treatment has 
j been such as to ensure its being good; for, like Sea- 
i kale, Ilyacinlli llowers, and some other things, the 
! quality of the forced article is, in a great measure, due 
' to the accumulated energies of the plant stored up 
during the preceding growing season. Certainly, a 
hasty or improper mode of forcing will considerably ! 
decrease the produce, and, in fact, all forcing must 
partially do so, while on no occasion is it improved by 
it, that it becomes tlie careful manager so to arrange 
tlie roots tliat as little damage as possible takes place. 
In the first place, like everything else, the shorter tlie 
period of rest the plant is allowed the worse is its produce. 
It is necessary, therefore, to hasten the early ripening of 
the plant to be forced, so as to give it as much rest as 
possible. Now this cannot well be accomplished, save 
by planting on a dry, early situation, where the settled 
dry weather we often have in September will give the 
plant a better chance to ripen and perfect itself than it 
could otherwise do in a cold, damp place; hence the 
propriety of selecting plants to force from such a situa¬ 
tion, if a choice can be made. Be very careful in taking 
them up not to injure them, and do not let the roots be 
cut; and let as much earth as possible adhere to each 
plant, and let them be carried at once to the bed pre¬ 
pared for them, and inserted at once in it, giving them j 
the necessary covering of fine, mellow earth, to prevent ! 
their roots receiving injury by exposure; and their after- ' 
treatment is simple enough, if due regard be paid to the 
heating material on which they are planted, and other ' 
matters detailed below. j 
While enforcing the propriety of taking up Asparagus ' 
with all possible care, similar attention must be paid to | 
Sea-kale wdien it has to be taken up, or, in fact, any¬ 
thing else. Without good roots, no plant whatever can I 
live and do well ; and, therefore, such plants as Sea- \ 
kale, Chiconj, Axparagits, Parsley, Albit, and, in fact, : 
anything whatever that it is necessary to take up to 
force, ought to be taken up with all the roots as entire 
as possilde, as there is little doubt but that the whole of 
the underground portion of the plaiit is charged with 
the accumulated matter of the preceding year’s growth, 
which must be more or less lost in proportion to the 
mutilation. 
In preparing a bed for forcing Asparagus the very 
commonest material may be used ; tree leaves, tan, or 
dung, anything that will give heat that will maintain a 
temperature from 55° to 70° will do; as it is better not 
to begin too warm at first, but gradually inci’ease the 
heat; this, however, cannot well be done in an ordinary 
j hotbed, and it is hardly necessary; but having got the j 
bed made up of materials that have been little prepared j 
beforehand, some fine earth, or what has been partly I 
mixed with leafy-mould, may be spread over to the depth I 
of two inches, and the plants may then be placed on 
i tolerably thick, yet not crammed together, as by that 
: means they have no chance to benefit by the substance 
they are placed in, but have to subsist and produce their 
; heads from the stored up matter of the former year 
i alone; after they are so placed, cover them up with 
( flue sifted, leafy-ifiould, so that the crowns of the plants 
! are about two inches covered over, and the lights put 
I on ; but little more attention is required until the plants 
begin to grow a little, when they will be benefited by a 
watering with liquitl-manure in which a little salt has 
been thrown; the salt at this time is simply to make 
the bed distasteful to any slugs or wood-lice that may have 
found their way in. Waterings with liquid-manure may 
be repeated during all the time the plants are being 
forced, and the result will most likely bo satisfactory. 
It is a matter of taste whether Asparagus be grown 
in the dark, and blanched white, or be allowed a certain 
amount of light and air, and becoine a little green—for 
it is not easy to have it quite green—the dull, dark days, 
I and the probability of frost and snow, preventing so 
much exposure as is necessary to give it colour; but it 
is most esteemed, and its llavour higher, when it par¬ 
takes a little of the green, the infiuence of air and light 
benefiting it in other points of view as well as in colour. 
But if Sea-kale be forced in the same place it must be 
kept from the light; for, contrary to most vegetables, it 
is best when denied access to fresh air, and a blanched 
condition is the only one in which it is admissible at 
I table; and the quicker the growth, the more tender the 
produce, only at this early season it does not grow so fast 
as in March or April. In forcing, however, it merely 
wants to grow in the dark, and need not be blanched by 
any substance surrounding it. lihubarh, like Asparagus, 
is improved by access to the air; so that when all three 
are forced in one place, means must be taken to keep 
the Kale in darkness at all times, the others may have 
all the light they can get consistent with their safety as 
delicately forced articles. 
At this season. Potatoes may also be put in to force; 
in fact, where they are wanted early they ought to have 
been in before. Beds of heating material, covered with 
dry earth, and the Potatoes planted there, will, in a usual 
way, go on all right; but more particulars will be given 
another week. But it is considered good practice to 
partially force or start the tuber in pots first, and then 
plant them out; where, therefore, there is room for a 
quantity of 5 inch pots to stand on any warm place (it 
need not be very light) let them be tilled with good, 
leafy-mould and fresh earth mixed, and a single tuber 
put in each, merely deep enough to be covered, and that 
is all; they will speedily fill tlie pots with roots, when 
they may be planted out at once into some prepared bed, 
the object being to delay the making up of that bed 
somewhat later, so as to give it a belter chance to main¬ 
tain its heat until the crop be gathered. As a sepai'ate 
article will likely be given on this head, 1 will only advise 
the amateur, who has no other convenience, to place a few 
on the border or floor of some heated house or pit, and 
they will speedily sprout out and grow; a little leafy 
matter under them and over them, too, will enable them 
to be lifted with roots uninjured; and care being taken in 
placing them all in their proper place at planting time, 
this plan may be carried out on a large scale, as well as 
in frames, and a corresponding early growth will be the 
result; not but that some mishaps may occur, as, for 
instance, planting them out-of-doors without protection, 
before the frosts and cold weather be all gone, where 
they will either perish through frost, or die the more 
lingering death by being starved, which they are sure to 
do if removed too hastily from a warm to a very cold 
situation. Radishes must have more air and light when 
they are forced, otherwise the elongation of the neck 
of the plant renders it ungainly. J. Robson. 
CONSEQUENCES. 
By the Authoress of My Flowers." 
{Continued from page 112.) 
The moment in which Julia stood before lier father as 
the detected wife of Mr. Grosvenor, dreadful as it must have 
been, was i^robably less dreadful tlian the period of terror 
