Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1859 — Farmer's Department. [ARTICLE]

Farmer's Department.

CONDUCTED by an agriculturist. ASP.tHIGIS Oil SPAKHOWGiItSS. This excellent article, which rivals green peas in delicious richness and delicacy of flavor, requires cultivation and care. The seed should be sown, either in the spring or fall, in a light, rich soil, such as is afforded by ( very farm in Jasper county. The young plants must be carefully tended the first season, and transplanted the follow’ing spring into a bed, where trenches have been dug up two feet deep and filled up eighteen inches with well-rotted barn-vard manure and ashes. The rows ought to be from three to four teet apart, and the plant set from a foot to fi:teen inches from each other. The young plants ought to be set out from two to six inches b«low the surface, but oughtto be set where water will not stand around the roots. The rows should be kept clean and enriched by manure throwed on the surface and plowed in every year. The next year after they are set out the young sprouts will be fit to cut for use. The kind known as giant asparagus comes to perfection the fourth year from the seed. The stalks are then large, tender, rich, juicy, and wholesome. Inferior articles mty be raised wtb less caro. HOW TO COOK ASPARAGUS. The stalks are best when of about two days growth. They will then be from ten to twelve inches high. Cut off six inches from the top. Boil in clean water until .completely tender. Then take up, without breaking the stalks, and lay them in a deep plate ai d cover them over thick with good yellow flutter, while hot, and leason with tine black pepper. Boarders like this. Some (Ut the staiks of one day’s growth, two or three inches in the ground. This is verywhite, but it is more apt t<> be a little tovu'h and sometimes bitter. TT» person who makes a garden, and iikos it, ouglu to hav ; a good large bed of asparagus. When it is once set out right, it is like an orchard, it will continue to grow a who e life time.