SEED-BREEDING. 29 



Capt. Moore. Running small. When you see that indi- 

 cation, you had better stop cutting, or else you will take all 

 you cut of your next crop three times over. If you go on 

 cutting it away up into July, as I have known some of my 

 neighbors to do, you will kill the goose in getting the golden 

 egg. You will not get any next year to pay for it. 



As I said, when I first began to grow asparagus, I happened 

 to know of one particular plant that grew enormous aspara- 

 gus, and I got seed from that plant. Most of the stock in 

 the vicinity of Concord has come from plants procured from 

 my place, or from seed from that plant, and there is great 

 uniformity in it : I mean previous to the introduction of what 

 is called " Conover's Colossal," which has since come into 

 the market. 



Now, in regard to saving seed : my custom has been, of 

 course, to select the seed from the largest and best stalks in 

 the bed;, and, just as when people select their corn without 

 any reference to the male, that seed would, of course, be 

 better than the average seed of the bed, because it came 

 really from a good female : the mother was a vigorous 

 plant. But two years ago I was thinking the matter over, 

 and I made up my mind, as I was going to set out a couple 

 of acres of asparagus (which I shall do next spring), that 

 I wanted something a little better than I had. How was I 

 going to get it? There was no better stock to get it from 

 than I had myself : I was satisfied of that. How was I going 

 to get something a little better ? I knew this fact, — that in 

 my bed there were a number of plants that uniformly every 

 year grew large stalks, as big as a hoe-handle when they came 

 up. Among those plants there would be some that would 

 give green tops, and some light green : there would be variety 

 in the tops in color. The market wants purple-topped as- 

 paragus. I wanted to propagate something that would meet 

 the demand of the market : so I began last year, and every 

 day, as the stalks came up, I put a stake down where I found 

 a stalk that came up exactly to what I wanted. I had 

 formed an ideal in my own mind, and I did not trust any 

 one else to select the stalks. I put a stake by that stalk in 

 order to provide that it should not be cut. 



After the stalks got a little higher, I put bean-poles in 

 the field, so that I should know those stalks in the fall. I 



