GLEANINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1726, 28 July 1883, Page 2

GLEANINGS.

Make an Asparagus Bed. Asiwruuls is as easily raised as anything that grows in the garden, and yet it is comparatively rare to find it upon the fanner's table. The reason may be that much nonsense has been published about the difficulties of raising it, and that we have to wait two or three yeara for the full maturity of the plant. It is true that a full crop will not be given in less than three years, but when the bed is once made, the job is done for a dozen or twenty years. If made this spring, there will be one year the. less to wait. Any good well-diah.ed soil that will bear corn is suitable for Aspar.igus. Put in a couple of loads of manure for every four square rods of ground. Work it in thoroughly. Set out three-year-old plants, in rows too feet apart, and two feet in the row. They can be kept clean then with the garden fork. It should have cultivation once in two weeks, through the growing season. Cover the bed with manure in autumn as soon as the haulm is quite ripe, and fork it under in the spring. Cultivate thoroughly through the second season and top-dress, as before ; the second season a moderate cutting may be obtained, but the cutting should not be continued later than the middle of November. The plants must have time to grow, and recuperate in midsummer, or the bed will soon fail. The secret of large fine asparagus is abundant manure, applied in the Autumn every season, thorough cultivation until the tops prevent, and stopping the cutting by the middle of November ; a good sprinkling of bait will be of service, it should be applied during winter. The blanched asparagus that is so popular in some markets, is secured by covering the beds with sea-weed, straw, or other mulch. It is poor stuff in comparison with the long, green, tender shoots that have had the full benefit of the sunlight on a rich soil. The leading varieties are the "Colossal" and "Defiance."

What Others Think of Their Forests. As forests are more important to the State than to the individual, therefore, no man should be allowed to remove them at his will. .Sweden long since enacted that for every tree cut down, two should be planted. Even Finland has an active school of forestry, and Spain has already published upon this subject 1,126 books and pamphlets. Switzerland, rppenting the removal of her forests, by which the country WAs left at the of innundations and avalanches, has begun to replace the trees on the mountain slopes, and with the happiest results. It is, however, in Germany where forestry as a science and art is carried to the greatest degree of perfection. Well appointed schools devoted especially to this science, dot the whole Empire, and those educated in them are as much the servants of the State as are the officers of the army or navy.

Crops Suffer From " Wet Feet." Next to lack of nourishment (plant food,) in the soil, both grain and grass, and other cultivated crops, in field and garden, trees and flowers included, all suffer from standing in soils that hold too much water. Spade a hole a foot deep, and if it contains water four days after a rainfall, plants in that soil will suffer more or less from " wet feet." Water standing in the soil keeps it cold and clammy ; it prevents the entrance of air to act upon the elements contained, and lit them for plant food ; it often keeps iron salts in a poisonous form. Let all dead furrows and their outlets be carefully cleaned now with spade or hoe. An hour's work of this kind may may add twenty to forty bushels or more to the yield of a., field. If any soil, in a in a whole field, or in any part of it, is wet from holding its own catch of rain, or from water flowing or soaking from a higher to lower levels, and it is not Uiiderdrained, it is best to run deep double or triple ploughed furrows through it, down the slope, to carry off excess of water in rainy weeks, and then at harvest run the mowers and reapers parallel with these open ditches.- -N.Z. Country Journal.

A tea and concert will be given in the Mangapiko school-room on Friday, August 10th, in aid of the harmonium fund. 4L_fterthe concert Mr Jarlcy will exhibit his collection of animated wax-works. The whole will conclude with a dance. Mr Taylor, Taupiri, has turnips and carrots for <sale. The public are cautioned against harbouring Tames Wborskey, from tkc industrial school, who absconded from Te Awarautu on the 25th inst. It is notified that traffic is stopped over the Waiwhero creek, Haiailton-Te Arolia road, pending flood damage repairs. A general meeting of the shareholders of the Waikato Cheese and Kacon Factory Qompany will be held at Mr Knoxs mart, Hamilton, on Monday, the 13th August, at7p.m,,to recoive report and balance-snoet, elect directors and auditors, and for other business. Tenders are required for additions to fence at Hamilton West School. / ,We direct special attention to the advertisement of Mr H, Buckland, Duke-street, , Cambridge ,Mr Aldridge will conduct services, both morning 1 and eveninc, at Le Quesne's Hall, Hamilton, to-morrow. The subject of the evenjnglectutje is " Idolatory in the Plain of Dura, a. history and a type," being a continuation of the spries on the Book of Daniel. " - ' ' The "deafen is announced of Mr W. Jf. Nimpao, the well-known Scotch pub-