Making Home Profitable

by Kate V. Saint Maur

If you have a strip of ground on which corn or potatoes were grown last year, scatter barn-yard manure over it. If it is heavy loam, plough deeply, but if light sandy soil, the furrows need not be more than six inches deep, and in addition to the barn-yard fertiliser it will be well to use a heavy dressing of wood ashes. We spread the barn-yard manure about three inches deep all over the surface of the ground before ploughing, then broadcast ashes, harrowing up and down, leave for about two weeks, and then harrow from side to side.

When in good condition, the ground must be marked off into rows about four feet apart. Run the plough twice in the same furrow, and the trench will be deep enough to admit of a little more manure being scattered, then covered lightly with soil before the plants are put in. Set them three feet apart. Cultivate well through the summer to keep clean and promote growth.

Cut out any flower-stalks which may appear, for one flower-stalk takes more strength from the root than twenty fruit-stalks, so they should never be allowed to mature, even in the ordinary garden-beds.

The clumps left undisturbed for the summer supply should have a good dressing of manure worked into the ground around them now and again after the gathering season is over, so that they will be in good condition to go into the cellar in December.

When old clumps have been divided and set out in April, they will be large and strong enough to use for forcing the following December, but if young nursery plants have to be bought, it is better to defer forcing until the second winter.

About November 15th we dig up the roots and leave them to be frozen; then about December 1st, or even a little earlier if the nights have been frosty, one-half the roots are piled up in a shed, and the other half packed on the earth floor of the forcing-house. A little earth is scattered between them, and then they are sprinkled with water in which nitrate of soda has been dissolved, one ounce of the latter to one gallon of water.

The stove is started, a wash-boiler of water put on, and then the work simply consists of shaking down the stove, putting on half a scuttle of coal and filling up the boiler night and morning.

In from three to four weeks the first gathering is made. Stalks should be from twelve to fourteen inches high, and four usually go to a bunch. The roots will yield good crops for from three to four weeks, but gathering should cease when the crop shows any sign of declining.

When you decide that the roots shall stop bearing, let the fire go out. Three or four days later the roots can be removed and piled in a shed, and those that have been held dormant brought in and spread on the cellar floor. Proceed as with the first lot, and at the end of the season simply let out the fire again and wait until the weather will permit outside planting. Then divide the roots into two or three pieces, according to size, and plant in rows as before. They will be ready for forcing again the second winter, so that, once started, the supply is always on the increase.

Asparagus can also be forced in the same manner as rhubarb, the only difference being that asparagus roots don’t divide well, so seed has to be sown each year to keep up a stock for forcing. Plants cannot be used until the third season, and they are not supposed to be worth replanting for forcing.