116 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Slade. The gentleman puts his question in such a 

 way as would prevent me from answering. He wants the 

 opinion of "the best cultivators." I do not profess to be 

 among the best cultivators of asparagus, or anything else, 

 as to that matter. I grow some asparagus, and in regard to 

 the question, what is the best disposition to make of it in the 

 fall, I would say, that I mow mine and burn the tops on the 

 beds, and when it is convenient, I top-dress, and work in the 

 manure with the cultivator or plough. 



Mr. Cheever. At what time in its growth, if you please? 



Mr. Slade. About the time that it gets through growing ; 

 about the time of the appearance of frost. Iji cultivating 

 asparagus, I have been troubled more or less, as we all are 

 in our section of the State, with the beetle, or fly, or whatever 

 it is, that eats the tops, and we have to keep it oif. "I do 

 it in various wa3^s. I usually, at the season of the year 

 when they are most prevalent, have a little broom, with a 

 handle about three feet long, and go along between the rows, 

 and just brush the tops (I can go over an acre in about an 

 hour), and then follow with the cultivator immediately. I 

 do not claim that this destroys the injurious insects, but I do 

 claim that it obstructs them in their work very much ; it keeps 

 them back for a long while. And at the same time that you 

 are doing this, you will find thi^t there are slugs on the 

 branches of the asparagus, all ready to hatch and eat, and 

 you knock those off, and of course destroy that coming pest. 

 In that way I manage to keep them off. I did so this season, 

 until about the last of August or first of September, when 

 they rather got the advantage of me, as I thought. I brushed 

 them a few times, but still the tops died. They ate them 

 down. And to be certain to get rid of them, about the 

 middle of September I mowed the bed, cut it close to the 

 ground, the whole of it, put the tops in winrows, and as 

 soon as they were dry enough, burned them and destroyed 

 everything. That I have done heretofore, but never so late 

 in the season. I have done it about the last of July, for two 

 years certainly, which I think had a very beneficial effect in 

 destroying the insect. I did it in the year 1873, and in the 

 3^ear 1874, 1 was not troubled at all with them. The next year, 

 this last year, I was troubled to this extent of which I speak. 



