22 TBANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



catch the rains. This may be done the best with a single shovel 

 plow or a small one-horse plo\*^. The relative merits of planting 

 whole or cut potatoes is yet undecided with very many. The bes 

 rule in my experience is to pay no attention to the moon, but be 

 governed by common sense. Cut the large sets so as to leave suf- 

 ficient substance to the plant, remembering he that soweth sparingly 

 as a rule will reap, also, sparingly. The varieties of potatoes are 

 legion, and still they come. Each individual planter must determine 

 and decide which is best for his soil and latitude. 



Asparagus is fast becoming one of the great staple vegetables in 

 city and country, and so it should be. Every possessor of a home 

 and a square rod of ground should have a bed of this healthy, easily 

 procured vegetable. Asparagus being a hardy perennial plant and a 

 g^oss feeder requires an abundance of manure. A permanent bed in 

 the garden in town may be made by trenching to the depth of two 

 feet or more, and mixing each layer of soil with four inches of well- 

 rotted stable manure. Permanent beds can be made at a trifling 

 expense on most every farm. This may be done by opening out a 

 deep and wide furrow on the center of the spot where you desire to 

 plant. It is best to have one or more long continuous rows con- 

 venient to your wagon drive, where manure can be applied from the 

 wagon drive without going on and over the bed when wet, having 

 your furrow made with a two-horse plow — wide and deep as two 

 heavy horses can pull, following in the bottom of the furrow with 

 subsoil, then scatter in the ))ottom of the furrow full four inches of 

 rotten manure; close up this furrow, covering the manure, having 

 now two furrows to fill with manure as before; so continue until 

 you get your bed the desired width and length. For a bed of three 

 long rows a bed of eleven feet wide should be prepared. A very good 

 distance to plant is three feet four inches by fourteen inches in the 

 row; where ground is trenched and manured heavily, two and one- 

 half by one foot. We recommend cultivating asparagus with a 

 horse. The wider distance requires about five hundred plants to an 

 acre. Two-year-old plants can be obtained from most gardeners and 

 nurserymen at fifty cents per hundred or four dollars per thousand. 

 The crown of asparagus should be three inches below the surface 

 level; not necessarily best to cover that depth in all soils and situa- 

 tions when planting, but as the plant grows it can be filled up and 

 leveled until that depth of rich soil is above the crown. Manure can 

 be piled on during the fall or first winter months to the depth of 

 two or more inches annually. Thus the productiveness may be kept 

 up from twenty to fifty or more years. It should be cultivated 

 thoroughly during the cutting season and once more after. It may 

 be cut from April till July, and a part of the bed may be let grow 

 up in early spring and be mown off with a scythe the last week in 

 August, cultivated and cut daily through September and a part of 

 October. 



