Subsequent Cultivation

Throughout the year care must be taken to keep the beds clear of weeds, and in the spring and summer apply liquid manure twice a week plentifully. In the latter end of October or commencement of November, the beds are to have the winter dressing. The stalks must be cut down and cleared away, and the weeds hoed off into the paths, care being taken not to commence whilst the stems are at all green, for if they are cut down whilst in a vegetating state the roots are very prone to shoot again, and consequently are propor-tionably weakened.

On the richness of the ground and warmth of the season the sweetness of asparagus depends. The dung needs merely to be laid regularly over the bed, and the weeds, as well as some manure, to be slightly pointed into the paths, some of the mould from which must be spread to the depth of two inches over the dung just laid upon the beds. In the end of March, or early in April, before the plants begin to sprout, the rows are to be stirred between to a moderate depth with the asparagus fork, running it slantingly two or three inches beneath the surface, as the object is merely to stir the surface and slightly mix it with the dung.

Great care must be taken not in the least to disturb the plants. Some gardeners recommend the beds should only be hoed again, so fearful are they of the injury which may be done to the stools; but if it be done carefully, as above directed, the fork is the best implement to be employed. This course of cultivation is to be continued annually, but with this judicious modification, that earth be neven taken from the paths after the first year, but these merely be covered with dung, and which is only to be slightly dug in; for every gardener must have observed that the roots of the outer row extend into the alleys, and are consequently destroyed if they are dug over. And, rather than that should take place, the beds should have no winter covering unless earth can be obtained from some other source, as asparagus does not generally suffer from frost, as is commonly supposed.

Manuring

No garden plant is more benefitted than is asparagus by the application of common salt, if it be given at such times as the plants are growing. Two pounds to every thirty square yards of surface should be sown broadcast over the beds early in April. After that, water the plants once a week with liquid manure, formed of half an ounce of guano and four ounces of salt to every gallon of water. The supply of food cannot be too rich or too abundant.

Spanish Culture

Near Sebastian, in Spain, the finest asparagus in Europe is produced by the following mode: -

"In March the seed is sown in two drills, about two inches deep, and eighteen inches from the alleys, thus leaving a space of two feet between the drills. The rows run invariably east and west, doubtless in order that the plants may shade the ground during the heats of summer.

"When the seedlings are about six inches high, they are thinned to something more than a foot apart. Water is conducted once a day among the alleys, and over the beds, so as to give these seedlings an abundant and constant supply of fluid during the season of their growth. This is the cultivation during the first year.

"The second year, in the month of March, the beds are covered with three or four inches of fresh night soil from the reservoirs of the town. It remains on them during the summer, and is lightly dug in during the succeeding autumn; the operation of irrigation being continued as during the first season. This excessive stimulus, and the abundant room the plants have to grow in, must necessarily make them extremely vigorous, and prepare them for the production of gigantic sprouts.

"In the third spring asparagus is fit to cut. Doubtless all its energies are developed by the digging in of the manure in the autumn of the second year, and when it does begin to sprout, it finds its roots in contact with a soil of inexhaustible fertility.

"Previously, however, to the cutting, each bed is covered in the course of March very lightly with dead leaves, to the depth of about eight inches; and the cutting does not commence till the plants peep through this covering, when it is carefully removed from the stems, in order that the finest only may be cut, which are rendered white by their leafy covering, and succulent by the excessive richness of the soil.

"In the autumn of the third year, after the first cutting, the leaves are removed, and the beds are again dressed with fresh night soil, as before; and these operations are repeated year after year. In addition to this, the beds are half under salt water annually at spring tides".