ASPARAGUS. : 27 
In fine weather, early in April, let the seed be | 
pas 
very good asparagus for use in the course of 25° 
sown. Though most seed will remain good during | or 26 months after sowing. 
three or four years, either seed from bad berries 
When transplanting from mere seed-beds is 
or seed rather long kept, will not produce one} practised, or when additional crops are desired 
plant from twenty grains, and ought therefore 
not to be employed. The sower cannot be too 
particular respecting the soundness and excel- 
lence of the seed; and if he have not had the 
means of gathering it within two seasons preced- 
ing from plants of his own, he ought to procure 
it from some brother-gardener or conscientious 
and practical seedsman, on whose knowledge of 
| its origin and perfect honesty in dealing he can 
| fully rely. Or if compelled to use seeds of un- 
known age or character, he must at least test 
their probable vitality in some of the ways which 
shall be recommended in our article upon Sseps. 
The object which dictates and controls the de- 
tailed arrangements of sowing, is to obtain one 
good plant at the distance of every nine inches 
in a row; and this object will guide every gar- 
| dener of tolerably good sense, far better than a 
code of minute directions. Yet we may say, in 
general, that three drills should be formed along 
each bed, at the distance from one another of a 
foot ; that each drill should be an inch and a half 
deep, and should be made smooth and even along 
the bottom, by the pressure of the long handle of 
a rake or of any similarly-formed straight pole ; 
and that the seed, if undoubtedly good, should be 
dropped in threes or fours, about an inch asunder 
from each other, at every space or distance of 
nine inches,—but if of doubtful quality, ought to 
be sown along the whole drill with a degree of 
scantiness or profusion corresponding to the sup- 
posed proportion of their soundness. i 
When two young plants rise close to each other, 
the one should, as soon as possible, be carefully 
removed ; and when they have been thickly sown, 
and come thickly up, they ought to be very early 
thinned. Yet previous toa final thinning of nine- 
inch sowings, or a thinning to two or three inches 
of continuous sowings, the plants should be per- 
mitted to attain a height of three inches and to 
effect a perfect development of their leaves, in 
order that the strongest plants may be easily 
ascertained, and may alone be permitted to re- 
main. Besides, as no man can conjecture what 
amount of damage may be done by moisture, 
frost, snow, and other hostile influences during 
the dormant season, a large stock of young plants, 
previous to final or severe thinning, ought to be 
permitted to stand in the drills till the second 
spring. If the plants suffer little injury from the 
winter, the supernumeraries can be taken out 
in spring, and may then be employed in other 
fashions for the raising of additional crops. But 
during the whole of the first season, as well as 
during subsequent years, the spaces between the 
rows must be kept clean by cautiously passing a 
Dutch hoe, from time to time, over the surface. 
Such culture as this, upon mere seed-beds, with- 
out any transplanting, has occasionally produced 
from the thinnings of permanent beds, plants of 
the first year may be planted four inches apart 
either in shallow trenches or in open drills cut 
with a spade along very tightly stretched lines, 
and plants of the third year, or if possible the 
fourth year, may be employed when esculent pro- 
duce is desired within the period of twelve or 
fifteen months. The plants ought to be placed 
so deep as to permit their crowns to be covered 
with two inches of fine soil ; and their roots ought 
to be let down expandedly, and in full length, and 
to be placed in complete contact or coating with 
the soil. The proper time for transplanting is 
after considerable drought, and while the soil is 
open, free, and pulverulent, in March or April; 
and immediately after planting, each row ought 
to receive one liberal watering, in order that the 
plants may be securely fixed, and may as speedily 
as possible start into growth. If blanks occur in 
consequence of the decay of some roots, they may, 
as late as the middle of June, be filled up from 
the nursery-bed; but the plants used for them 
must be real seedlings, and must be planted in 
an evening or during cloudy weather, and copi- | 
ously watered. 
Any bed of asparagus growing in single rows 
may be set apart for the purpose of forcing; and 
it may be so contrived as to furnish three dis- 
tinct forcings,—the first to commence late in 
November, to be cut at the close of the year,— 
the second, about the first week in January,— 
and the third early in February,—while a fourth 
reserve ought to come in at the natural season, 
blanched but not forced, in April. After the 
stems of the plants have become inactive, or have 
acquired their hybernating condition, they ought 
to be cut away, the rows should be moulded up 
with fine soil from the spaces,—the earth of each 
space on the sides of the rows which are destined 
to be forced, should be dug up and carried away 
in such quantity as to leave trenches of one foot 
in depth,—shallow boxes or troughs, formed of 
three strips of board fastened together, and five 
or six inches deep, should be placed invertedly | 
over the rows of the plants——a compost of two- 
thirds of tree leaves and one-third of fresh stable 
manure, should be employed to fill up the trenches 
to the level of these covering troughs,—either a 
similar compost, or at least a mass of tree-leaves 
should be heaped over both rows and trenches to 
the additional depth of 18 inches or two feet,— 
and a thatch of straw hurdles or of any similar 
material, should be placed over all, to keep out 
excessive rains, and to retain the developed heat. 
Trial sticks should be thrust into the masses; 
and if these, on being withdrawn, feel gently 
warm, the process of regular and successful forc- 
ing may be regarded as begun and certain. After 
the process is completed, and all its objects 
