The Garden [By Hortus.]

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 360, 17 April 1889, Page 3

The Garden [By Hortus.]

Keeping Pears. Pears to keep in good order till they are properly ripe will require judicious handling. If picked before they are properly matured they are liable to shrink, become twugh, and almost tasteles-3 as far as flavour is concerned. If permitted to remain on the treo till ripe, the gun will evaporate parts of its aroma, thus lessening its flavour at> well as its juiciness. It therefore wants careful picking so that it is neither too long oil j the tree nor picked too «oon. The bopb time to pick is when the fruit will part easily from the tree when gently fakcn by the hand. Another matter which must be attended to is the handling of the fruit after it is picked. Pears which are slightly bruised will not keep long ; decomposition i«> rapid, and will quickly pass from one to another. All fruit showing the slightest signs of decay should at ouco be separated from the sound fruit. To lipen peira pioperly they should be placed in a cool r'aik place where the air is pure. The !• st ripened pears that. I have e\er tasted aie those which were picked and at once placed away in a loft. A blanket was placed on the flooi, the pears placed singly on the blanket, and immediately afterwards another blanket was placed on top This kept the light from them, at the same time it filtered the air before it reached the fruit, thus giving the pears plenty of time to mature slowly without that lapid evaporation which t"\kes place when fiuit is fully exposed to the light to and strong currents of air

Cultivation of Asparagus. W. D. Philbrick, in the " American Cultivator," gives foil description how asparagus is cultivated for marker. We give some extracts from the article, believing that our farm readers v ill find its surges tions useful : The best land for asparagus is a deep, sandy loam. x\ny soil that is mellow nnd not lumpy, and free fiom stone?, will answer ; atones an-i lumps make the sprouts grow crooked and unma>ketable. The land should be premiod by previous tillage, so as to be quite free fiom conch grass and other weeds, and is p;e pared by ploughing under a heavy dress mar of manure early in spring, after which the land is harrowed and furrowed deeply ■with a large two-horse plough, running it two or three times in the same furrow, and then shovelling out the loose loam ■with long-handled shovels. This will leave furrows about ten inches deep belou the average level of the Held. The fui roware made three and one-half ov four feet apart, and after making two furious the cart is driven along&ide to spread a little fine manure in rhe furrow, and then the plant 3 are set at one foot apart along the furrow, taking pains to point the heads of the plants :n the direction of the row. This will tend to keep them frjtn spreading sideways, as they are apt to when planted carelessly. It is quite desirable to keep the plants in distinct rows as long as possible, otherwise it is far more difficult to plough and cultivate them. The plants are covered by the hoe only an inch deep at first so thab they may &bart quickly. After planting two rows, then two more can be struck out ; ov if phosphate is used in the furrow, the whole iield can be struck o«S at once. But a manuie caru cannot be driven over such deep furrows without destroying cbein. The object in setting the roots so deep is to allow ploughing the whole surface of the field over the tops of the roots to destroy weels after the plants are well established. The plants are raised the year previous by sowing seed in rows fifteen inches apart and treating the plants like onions — that is, hoe and weed them often. There is considerable diffoience in the varieties of the asparagus used. Aflei planting the asparagus the ridges between the rows may be planted with carrot^ or beets, which will nob interfere with the asparagus, and will pay for keeping the land clean the first jear. The second jear there should be notning else giown upon the lani. In spring it should recehe a good dressing of manure or of somestandard fertiliser containing a liberal portion of potash. The surface should be ploughed entirely over with a light one-horse plough and then harrowed thoroughly with a good smoothing harrow. The straw of the previous year is usually mowed and burned upon the land beforo ploughing. The only objection to this practice is that the amount of seed scattered thus is often troublesome, and many farmers prefer bo remove the tops and burn them somewhere in the fall before the peed falls. Duriner the second year the plants •will only need to bo kept clean, and no sprouts should be cut for the table iill the third year, when they may be cut till June Ist, and after this they will bear cutting till July Jst, or till green peas are so plentiful as to spoil the trade. The cutting of aspai'agus needs constant attention in its season, which begins about che lasb of Apiil or Ist of May, and extends six or eight weeks. During this time the field should be cub every day in warm weather and twice on Saturday, in order to omit Sunday work, or in very hot days in order to keep the sprouts down. The cutting is best done with a common butcher's knife, with a blade twelve inches long, with two inches at the point filed withnotchesone-eighbh of an inch apart, like saw teeth. The knives need grinding and filing daily, but will hold sharp twice as long with teeth as without them. Each cutter cuts two row?, and when he gets a handful of sprouts lays them down to be picked up by a man with a wheel-barrow, who follows after gathering the sitting of four or five rows at once. The sprouts are taken at once to the shed and bunched for market. The bunching is done in a small wooden frame, and requires some skill to do it well and quickly. A skilful hand will tie about 200 to 250 bunches per day. The large stems should be placed on the outside of the bunch and the string of grass matting drawn very tightly. After tying, the butts are squared off with a sharp knife jusb nine inches long, and unless immediately sent to the market should be placed upright in tubs, in a cool place, with an inch of ice water in the bottom, in which condition the " grass " will keep fresh for several days. What is known as white asparagus is blanched by ridging up the earth over the rows as high as it can be thrown with a shovel. The asparagus will need attention two or three times daily when grown in this way, to cut every sprout as soon as it shows its head above the ground. They are cut eight or len inches under ground, being all white except the greenish purple tip. This article sells at about double the price of ordinary asparagus, though it in neither bo tender nor of such appetising flavour as the common vegetable. Many times I have thought that some of our farmers might make a good thing by turning their attention to the cultivation of asparagup.

Guest (at an evening party, to bashful young man) : " You may order me an ice, waiter." Supposed Waiter (fiercely : Sir ! I'm no waiter, sir, and such a mistake demands an apology, sir !" Guesb (covered with confusion) : "Why, of course ifc does. Where d'ye suppose I can find the waiter?"