an asparagus bed is naturally more expensive than the planting and
raising of annual vegetables. In addition to this, the plants have to be
taken care of for three years before a crop can be harvested. On the
other hand, an asparagus bed is an investment for a lifetime, and the
dividends derived from it increase in proportion to the care and
thoroughness bestowed upon the preparation of the land.

It is at once apparent, then, that nothing should be neglected to bring
the soil into the best possible condition before planting. This truth
was fully recognized by the gardeners of former years who practiced
most extraordinary methods in order to bring the land into the most
favorable condition for asparagus. Even now in some European countries,
where labor is cheap, the entire ground is trenched to a depth of three
or four feet, turning in at the same time all the available manure,
seaweed, and other fertilizing material.

A famous old-time asparagus bed in England was made in this manner: "The
land was trenched three feet deep in trenches three feet wide and cast
up into rough ridges, after a crop of summer peas. All decaying
vegetation in the rubbish yards and corners was at the same time well
sorted and turned up. Early in autumn also were added some old mushroom,
melon, and cucumber bed material, a lot of manure from piggeries, cow
houses, and stables, a quantity of road-grit and sand, a quantity of
ditch and drain parings, turfy loam and sods, quite three feet thick.
These were all turned over four times and well incorporated together,
between Michaelmas and Lady Day, as one would a dungheap, the whole
being left in large ridges exposed to the frost. By April this compost
was in a kindly state; it was, therefore, laid down and planted with
good, clean one-year-old asparagus plants, which certainly grew in a
most extraordinary way."

Another elaborate way of making an asparagus bed, formerly practiced in
France, is described by Dr. Maccullogh as follows: "A pit the size of
the intended plantation is dug four feet in depth, and the mold taken
from it must be sifted, taking care to reject all stones, even as low in
size as a filbert nut. The best part of the mold must then be laid aside
before making up the beds. The materials of the bed are then to be laid
in the following proportions and order: Six inches of common dunghill
manure, eight inches of turf, six inches of dung as before, six inches
of sifted earth, eight i