The Portland daily press., 1874-12-02
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Asparagus Beds.

Whether there is but one, or whether
there are many varieties of asparagus, is a
question which has been discussed the past
few years. Some contend that there is; that
they are larger than others; and that these
will reproduce themselves from seed. Others
say this is impossible on account of the uni
sexuality OF each Individual plant, and that
large asparagus is wholly the result of good
culture.
This is one OF those questions which each
will decide for himself in his own way; it is
enough for us to say that We have seen aspar-
agus years and years ago, long before any
new and superior varieties were talked OF,
that was quite as large as any now grown,
let them be "new' or ''old," as the case may
be. With good culture asparagus may be
had good enough for anybody, without caring
much for what variety it is. 5 l-eI
To have good asparagus the plants should
not be crowded too closely together. Those
who have it extra large give each plant two
or even three feet square to itself; indeed, it
is whispered that this is the secret of produc-
tion of the extra large new varieties. For
general culture in gardens, however, no one
thinks of putting them so wide apart, makes
the most OF the ground and looks to warming
for difference. AS soon as possible after the
stalks have become brown they are cleared
away, and on the surface two or three inches
ering the whole bed. This remains all win
ter, and very early in the spring this is forked
in. The shoots which spring up through
this rich earth is quite as fine as the most
fastidiOus would care for, even when the
plants are in one thick mass together. Gen
orally the brown stalks are left as litter all
winter, and when the beds are manured at
all it is in the spring. But it is found best to
put the manure on in the fall, not merely for
the sake OF appearance, but that the plants
seems to be all the stronger for the fall appli-
cation. Those who have tried this all.cover-
ing believe further that asparagus so treated
comes up earlier in the spring. Perhaps it
may. The frost would hardly penetrate so
deep, and there would thus be less to thaw
out; and then it is supposed that dark soil,
which manure tends to create, attracts heat
more than light soil does, and so manured
bed would warm up earlier in the spring.
Germantown Telegraph. 1T
Rotation n Preventive against insects.
Every kind OF crop has its peculiar insects
which feed on it, in the different stages of
its growth. Some attack the roots, as the
wire-worm, etc.; some the young leaves as
they appear above ground, as the cut-worm,
the turnip fly, etc.; some the stems, as the
Hessian fly, ETC.. some the leaves, as the to-
bacco worm, the Colorado beetle; and some
the grain, as the wheat fly, etc.
Many Of these insects deposit their eggs in
the ground, and from these proceed, in course
OF time, after their regular transformations,
insects and worms that feed on each particu-
lar kind of crop. As long as the repetition
of the same kind of crop takes place, the new
generation of injurious insects find their IA
vorite food, and increase and multiply until
they become so numerous that considerable
part of the crop is destroyed by them.
II, instead OF repetition of the same kind
of crop, five or six course rotation is fol-
lowed, the destructive insects, being deprived
of their favorite food for five or six years in
succession, some become greatly diminished.
The larva or pupa are generally destroyed by
the working of the soil, and the perfect in
sects from other localities are taught by in
sects to seek more favorable places for depos-
iting their eggs.
worm feed on variety of the cultivated
crops, and it may. be thought that rotation
would not have the effect of banishing them,
but this is the exception and not the rule.
Every gardener knows that in small garden
it is cry difficult to keep the crops free from
injurious insects. The reason is that, al
though rotation may be followed, the crops
cannot be removed to a sufficient distance
from the place which they occupied the pre-
vfous year, and they are not beyond the
reach of the insects. 1t is evident that in
field or garden the farther any kind OF crop is
sown from the place similar crop occupied
the previous year, the better will be its
chance of escaping from the peculiar insects
which prey on it.-Western Rural.