e that no definite rule can be stated. It
is more to the purpose to say that, if liberally grown, the plant may be
cut from in the third year; and that cutting should cease about the
middle of June, or early in July, according to the district. For the
good of the plant the sooner cutting ceases the better, as the next
year's buds have to be formed in the roots by the aid of the top-growth
of the current season.

==Weeding and Staking.==--Two other points relating to the general
management are worthy of attention. Some crops get on fairly well when
neglected and crowded with weeds. Not so with Asparagus. The plant
appears to have been designed to enjoy life in solitude, being unfit for
competition; and if weeds make way in an Asparagus bed, the cultivator
will pay a heavy penalty for his neglect of duty. The limitation of the
beds to a width of three feet, therefore, is of consequence, because it
facilitates weeding without putting a foot on them. The other point
arises out of the necessity of affording support to the frail plant in
places where it may happen to be exposed to wind. When Asparagus in high
summer is rudely shaken, the stems snap off at the base, and the roots
lose the service of the top-growth in maturing buds for the next season.
To prevent this injury is easy enough, but the precautions must be
adopted in good time. A free use of light, feathery stakes, such as are
employed for the support of Peas, thrust in firmly all over the bed,
will insure all needful support when gales are blowing. In the absence
of pea-sticks, stout stakes, placed at suitable distances and connected
with lengths of thick tarred twine, will answer equally well. In
sheltered gardens the protection of the young growth with litter, and of
the mature growth with stakes, need not be resorted to, but in exposed
situations these precautions should not be neglected.

==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 a