Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/24

 the stools. Let those of the strongest grow to produce heads, the rest are removed by a pressure of the thumb or a cut with the knife. Dig the whole ground level, using yearly plenty of good rotten manure. A bed will continue productive for seven or more years. If the heads are not wanted for use or seed, they should be destroyed from the stem, which promotes the strength and vitality of the plant. Seed sown early in Spring, in drills, eighteen inches apart and two inches deep, will produce good plants the first season, and even be more permanent than those procured from offsets. Protect them carefully the first winter; transplant early in Spring, as above directed, for offsets. They will produce a few heads the following year, and thereafter a regular crop. If quality is preferred to quantity, the head that surmounts the stem only should be allowed to grow; all the lateral ones growing on the same stalk should be removed in their young state.

universal vegetable is supposed to be a native of Great Britain, where it is found on banks of sandy soil contiguous to the sea, growing luxuriantly under the salt breezes. Cultivators have found that salt brine, or a thin covering of salt thrown over the beds in the Fall, before they have their final dressing, proves very beneficial to its growth. Although it is not considered a very nutricious vegetable, yet it occupies a considerable proportion of every garden, and is extensively cultivated for our markets—some growers having eight or ten acres under culture, and I have no doubt that in a very few years it will be increased ten-fold.

.—This is accomplished only by seeds. When a new bed is formed, in order to save time, two or three-year old plants may be procured from Nurserymen or Gardeners, at a very low rate. There are several varieties of Asparagus named