==Manuring Permanent Beds.==—­The management of Asparagus includes a careful clean-up of the beds in autumn.  The plants should not be cut down until they change colour; then all the top-growth may be cleared away and the surface raked clean.  Give the beds a liberal dressing of half-decayed manure, and carefully touch up the sides to make them neat and tidy.  It is usual at the same time to dig and manure the alleys, but this practice we object to =in toto=, because it tends directly to the production of lean sticks where fat ones are possible; for the roots run freely in the alleys, and to dig is to destroy them.  In the spring clear the beds of the autumn dressing by raking any remnant of manure into the alleys, and the beds and the alleys should then be carefully pricked over with a fork two or three inches deep only, and with great care not to wound any roots.

The application of salt requires judgment.  For a time it renders the bed cold, and when followed by snow the two combine to make a freezing mixture which arrests the growth of established plants.  On a newly made bed salt is unnecessary, and may prove destructive to the roots.  The proper time for applying salt must be determined by the district and the character of the season; but in no case should the mineral be used until active growth has commenced, although it is not needful to wait until the growth is visible above the surface.  In the southern counties a suitable opportunity may generally be found from the beginning to the middle of April.  Second and third dressings may follow at intervals of three weeks, which not only stimulate the roots but keep down weeds.

==Planting Roots.==—­In many gardens where there is space for two or three beds only there will be the very natural desire to secure Asparagus in a shorter time than is possible from seed, and we therefore proceed to indicate the best method of planting roots.  Asparagus roots do not take kindly to removal, especially old and established plants.  The mere drying of the roots by exposure to the atmosphere is distinctly injurious to them.  They will travel safely a long distance when well packed, but the critical time is between the unpacking and getting them safely into their final home.  Everything should be made ready for the transfer before the package is opened, and the actual task of planting should be accomplished in the shortest time possible.

A three-feet bed should be prepared by taking out the soil in such a manner as to leave two ridges for the roots.  The space between ridges to be eighteen inches, and the tops of the ridges to be so far below the level of the bed that when the soil is returned, and the bed made to its normal level, the crowns will be about five inches beneath the surface.  This may be understood from the following illustration of a section cut across the bed.

[Illustration]