August 14. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
3 i ) 5 
ripened and become yellow, they should be cut down and 
removed, the beds forked over, and covered an inch thick 
with well-rotted manure and a sprinkling of salt. Should 
the winter be severe, cover them with long litter, as a pro¬ 
tection from frost. In the spring following, about the end 
of March, or early in April, the beds should be carefully 
forked over, the manure turned in, the surface raked, and 
the edges trimmed. It will be four years before a bed from 
seed will be in full production, but a cutting may be had 
from it, in the third year. 
The mode of proceeding for furnishing a bed with plants 
is the same as is given for seeds, with this exception, that 
where the basins were sown with seeds the same space is 
| to be occupied with a single plant. Liquid-manure, applied 
at intervals during autumn and spring, will be found an ex¬ 
cellent stimulant for increasing the strength of the plants. 
In cutting the heads of Asparagus the knife should 
never be inserted, except just beneath the surface of the 
soil, as great danger may arise from injuring the buds; and i 
the heads should always be allowed to attain the length of j 
six inches before cutting, and then be removed nearly level 
with the surface : in this way, instead of having a hard 
drumstick of tough vegetable fibre to suck, there will be a 
mass of wholesome vegetable matter to eat. 
To Boil Asparagus. —If tbe Asparagus is allowed to 
■ grow six inches above the ground before it is cut, the usual 
operation of scraping the stalks before cooking will be un¬ 
necessary ; but if not, they must be scraped clean. Tie tbe 
heads in small bundles with tape, as string will cut them ; 
cut off the stalks at the bottom, so that they may be all of 
one length, leaving just enough of the white to serve as a 
handle to the green part; put them into boiling water, into 
which a handful of salt has been thrown, and when they 
have boiled from twenty minutes to half-an-hour they will 
be done enough. Great care must be taken to watch when 
they are done, for if too much cooked they will lose both 
flavour and colour. Toast a round of bread about half-an- 
incli thick, which dip in the water in which the Asparagus 
was boiled, put it in the hollow of a dish, and lay the As¬ 
paragus upon it; serve it up with melted butter in a sauce¬ 
boat. 
Asparagus Sour. — To make two quarts of soup will 
require a pint-and-a-half of the tender green part of the 
Asparagus cut into pieces of about an inch in length, and 
boiled till tender. One pint to be nibbed through a sieve 
to thicken the soup, and the half-pint to he reserved whole. 
Add these to the soup, and boil for ten minutes or a quarter- 
of-an-liour. 
Asparagus like Green Peas. —For this purpose use the 
] small, slender heads called “ sprue.” Cut the tender green 
part, so far as it is perfectly tender, into pieces of equal 
size of about tbe third-of-an-inch in length ; wash them 
clean, and then put them into plenty of boiling water, with 
salt, and a small piece of soda. Boil for ten or twelve 
minutes, drain them, and spread them on a clean cloth; 
wipe them gently, and when quite dry put them into a 
stew-pan with a slice of butter, which should be just dis¬ 
solved before the Asparagus is added. Stew them in this 
over a brisk fire, shaking them often, for eight or ten 
minutes; dredge in a small tea-spoonful of flour, and add 
half that quantity of wdiite sugar. Then pour in boiling 
| water sufficient to nearly cover the Asparagus, and boil it 
rapidly till but little of the liquid remains. Stir in the 
beaten yolks of two eggs. Heap tbe Asparagus in a dish, 
and serve it very hot. The sauce should adhere entirely to 
the Asparagus. 
Stewed Asparagus. —Take fifty heads of Asparagus, an 
endive, a small lettuce, and a small onion, and shred 
them very fine; then put a quarter-of-a pound of butter 
into a stew-pan, to which, when melted, add the shred veget¬ 
ables. When they have stewed ten minutes, season with 
pepper and salt, strew in a little flour, shake them about, 
and add lialf-a-pint of gravy. Let them stew till the sauce 
is thick, and pour all into a dish. Garnish with the small 
tops of the Asparagus. 
Asparagus Toast. —Toast a slice of bread, butter it, and 
lay it in a dish. Take four eggs, break them well; put 
them into a saucepan with two ounces of butter, and a little 
salt, until they are of sufficient consistence, and then lay 
them on the toast. Have some Asparagus ready boiled, 
tender, and cut small, and lay tliis on the toast. 
Asparagus Omelet. —Boil some of the largest and finest 
Asparagus for twenty-five minutes with a teaspoonful of salt 
in the water; drain it, and cut it into very small pieces. 
Beat four eggs very light, and add to them a wine-glassful of 
cream, a salt-spoonful of salt, and a very little cayenne. 
Melt a large slice of fresh butter in a frying-pan, and when 
it has boiled, and the bubbling ceased, put in the asparagus 
and the eggs, and fry till light and firm ; then slip it from 
the frying-pan to a hot dish, and fold it over.— Roger 
Ashpole. 
Utility of birds. 
Your correspondents, Hardy and Son, Seed-growers, 
Maldon, in their zeal for the destruction of our British 
birds, do not appear to be very logical in the arguments which 
they advance in support of their cause. They suppose that 
one peck of grain, or seeds, per acre, is consumed yearly by 
the joint attacks of “ birds, rooks, and vermin;” but they 
furnish no data of the relative quantities devoured by each 
class. Birds are held up as the prominent aggi’essors. 
Now, when we consider the insidious attacks of insects, in 
all their multifarious varieties, and that birds are the most 
effective agents to keeping them in check, self-interest, if 
no higher motive, should induce us to pause before we pass 
an unqualified sentence of condemnation upon birds. A 
month at seed-time, and a month at harvest, birds are 
troublesome to the farmer and gardener; but this is more 
than compensated for by their services during the remain¬ 
ing ten months of the year. A skilful agriculturist, and an 
intelligent observer, near m'e, who farms about a thousand 
acres, besides having two other farms of his own, says, that 
he regards birds as a blessing from Providence, and among 
| the number of the farmers’ best friends. Rooks are his 
[ especial favourites, and carefully protected by him. Of 
rooks we are credibly informed that, in some parts of North 
America, -where at one time they greatly abounded, their 
numbers were so diminished, by rewards being offered for 
their destruction, and insects so increased, that it became 
necessary to offer counter rewards for their protection. In 
many parts of the United States the inhabitants fix a small 
box on the top of a long pole, and place it in their gardens 
about their houses, for a particular kind of small bird to 
build in. “ In these boxes the animals form their nests 
and hatch their young ones, which the parent birds feed 
with a variety of different insects, particularly those species 
which are injurious to gardens. A gentleman, who was at 
the trouble of watching these birds, observed that the 
parents generally went from tbe nest and returned with 
insects from forty to sixty times in an hour, and that in one 
particular hour they earned food no fewer than seventy-one 
times. In this business they were engaged during the 
greater part of the day: allowing twelve hours to be thus 
occupied, a single pair of these birds would destroy at least 
COO insects in the course of one day, on the supposition 
that the two birds took only a single insect each time ; but 
it is highly probable that they often took more.” In my own 
garden birds are never molested, and they consequently 
abound to the benefit of the crops. My next neighbour, 
whose grounds are more extensive, will not allow his gar¬ 
deners to destroy a single bird, preferring their services to 
their annihilation. If the ox is not to be muzzled which 
treadeth out the corn, why should birds, which have been 
instrumental in preserving it from the ravages of insects 
during its growth, be shot for venturing to partake of it 
when it is ripe ? In these days of ingenuity, we are not 
slow at adopting contrivances, and a little timely precaution, 
when corn and fruit are in season, might surely sufiace to 
guard them from the depredation of birds, without forming 
clubs for their wholesale destruction. 
A volume might be written containing facts and testi¬ 
monies on tbe utility of birds. They are not of human 
institution ; they are created by God for our benefit; and 
we certainly fulfil His designs, and promote our own interests 
more by preserving than destroying them. 
Insects constitute a large portion of their food, and the 
supply and demand act simultaneously upon each other. If 
