whole piece should be trenched back. If labour is at command a third
trenching may be done with advantage, and the surface may be left ridged
up until the time arrives to level it for seeding. It will be obvious
that this routine is of a somewhat costly character, but we are
supposing the plantation is to remain for many years, making an abundant
return for the first investment. Still we are bound to say that a
capital supply for a moderate table may be obtained by preparing a piece
of good ground in an open situation in a quite ordinary manner with one
deep digging in winter, adding at the time some six inches or so of fat
stable manure, and leaving it thus until the time arrives for sowing the
seed. Then it will be well to level down and point in, half a spade
deep, a thin coat of decayed manure to make a nice kindly seed-bed.

Where soil known to be unsuitable, such as a damp clay or pasty loam,
has to be prepared for Asparagus, it will be found an economical
practice to remove the top spit, which we will suppose to be turf or old
cultivated soil, and on the space so cleared make up a bed of the best
possible materials at command. Towards this mixture there is the top
spit just referred to. Add any available lime rubbish from destroyed
buildings, sand, peat, leaf-mould, surface soil raked from the rear of
the shrubberies, &c., and the result should be a good compost obtained
at an almost nominal cost.

==Size of Bed, and Sowing Seed.==--At this juncture several questions of
considerable importance arise. And first, whether the crop shall be
grown on the flat or in raised beds. Where the soil is sufficiently
deep, and the drainage perfect, the flat system answers well. The
advantages of raised beds are that they deepen the soil, assist the
drainage, promote warmth, and thus aid the growth of an early crop. In
fact, raised beds render it possible to grow Asparagus on soils from