PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 57 



filed to grow seventy-five Inisliels of shelled corn per acre — land, if possi- 

 ble, of the character I described for the seed bed— it is not a very serious 

 job to pnt down an acre of asparagus. 



"The record here given is a leaf from my own experience. My acre of 

 ground was a deep, sandy loam, upon which a heavy dressing of manure 

 had been placed the previous year and a crop of potatoes taken from it. 

 The land was turned two furrows deep and thoroughly cultivated, harrowed, 

 and smoothed with a planer. Rows were marked out four feet apart, and 

 with a plow trenches opened to a depth of nine inches. The ground once 

 in shape for planting, if a 'drizzly' day happens along just right, one has 

 the ideal conditions for putting in the plants. One man distributes the 

 plants three feet apart in the row and a second man puts them in place, 

 packing enough dirt firmly about the roots to cover them well. It requires 

 3,630 plants for the acre and the two men will, if active, put them in place 

 in a half day. The smoothing harrow drawn lengthwise of the plantation 

 completes the job, by rattling a little loose earth into the furrows. In a 

 few days the harrowing process can again be repeated, destroying the small 

 weeds, and I even followed a third time before the plants were high enough 

 to be injured. 



'■ Upon ground that is heavily manured with stable manure, weeds grow 

 without provocation, and constant cultivation is required to insure the 

 continuous growth of the planted crop; but the careful culture required 

 to keep the weeds in abeyance is the ideal culture for the crop. 



"At the end of the season the crowns of the asparagus plants are cov- 

 ered to a depth of six inches. The ground can be given thorough culture 

 to a depth of three or four inches across the field, without injury to the 

 plants. 



"My first acre was planted six years ago and has been plowed over each 

 year just after burning off the tops in the autumn, and before the freezing 

 of the ground. I give it a biennial dressing of stable manure alternating 

 with dressing of refuse salt from a hide-packing establishment. The 

 dressing of manure is at the rate of thirty-two tons per acre, and the dress- 

 ing of the salt product ''about eight tons per acre. The latter dress- 

 ing is filled with animal products. 



"In the spring of each year the ground is thoroughly cultivated, har- 

 rowed and finished with a planer, so that when we open the season of 

 picking the surface is as smooth as a floor. 



"My picking season usually lasts about six weeks and the average pro- 

 duct is something over 400 dozen bunches. If I can have a trusty hand to 

 do the gathering, I do not allow a knife to be taken into the field. The 

 gatherer takes two rows at a time, breaking off the shoots just beneath the 

 ground at the lowest point where they will snap squarely ofi*. In the 

 growing season the field is gone over every day. Asparagus should be 

 sold by weight, like lettuce and pieplant; but, unfortunately, our retailers 

 have not as yet taken this progressive step, and we have asparagus, not 

 only of all grades of quality in the market, but bunches of all lengths 

 and sizes. 



"Since I have used rubber elastics instead of string or bark for tying, 

 the process of bunching has been greatly abridged. Five dozen bunches 

 can be put together in an hour by an expert hand and neatly squared at 

 the ends. 



"Because the finest French asparagus goes into market blanched, with 

 only the tips having any color, many people have absorbed the idea that 



8 



