No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 245 



manure; the plant food can be supi)lied much more cheaply in fer- 

 tilizers. Now remember this, when we come to feeding an asparagus 

 bed, first we have got a row of plants that takes one year, that 

 is grown in a uurseiy row, now we have got one writer, W. F. 

 Massey, of Salisbury, Md., who is continually advocating planting 

 the seed where it is to remain, he saves a year. Granted, but if 

 he was to plant four or five acres and then try to keep the bugs 

 oft" of those young plants and keep the weeds out, I tliink he would 

 prefer planting them in the nursery row where he would have them 

 in a small space not larger than one side of this hall. When a 

 young asparagus plant comes through the ground nd the asparagus 

 beetle is as thick as we have them in old asparagus sections, two 

 or three or four light on that plant in three hours and it is doomed. 

 What man or what body of men on any one farm can cover three 

 or four acres of land and watch it close enough? We plant them 

 in a nursery row and plant them close by home and turn the poultry 

 loose and you will never have to put on any poison, the poultry 

 will take care of it; then take the plants one year old and you 

 will have the best bed at the end of two or three years. Set them 

 in the field atfer plowing under 10 to 12 tons per acre of manure 

 and set the plants right in the bottom of the furrow, and as soon as 

 those plants begin to grow, put on- an applicatin of four or five hun- 

 dred pounds of good potato fertilizer. 



A Member: How deep do you set them 



MR. HULSART: About 8 inches from the natural level. I have 

 had friends tell me a foot, but they measured from the top of the 

 furrow. I use a No. 20 Oliver chilled plow. If the soil was 11 

 or 12 inches deep, I would say, "Go down ten inches, if you can, 

 but never go more than half an inch, if possible, into the subsoil, 

 or the young plants will not thrive." They will not thrive until 

 the roots get up into a soil that has soluble and available plant food 

 in it. We want to keep the root system dawn as far as we can. 

 Every new set of roots comes out on top of the old ones. Now, 

 when they becme* abut f , sometimes ^ an inch thick, then that 

 crown is that much nearer the surface; next year another layer 

 comes up on the top. If we have got the greatest amount of feeding 

 surface close to the surface of the soil, those roots will work out 

 where the feed is rather than go down. If we have got the greatest 

 amount of plant food available down these, 7 or 8 inches, that root 

 system is going to stay down there and yu can plow over it and 

 not do a great of damage. 



A Member: How old do you let your asparagus become before 

 you begin cutting? 



MR. HULSART: I cut it when it is one year old for about 4 

 cuttings. I set it this April and cut it next season about 4 times 

 or possibly 5; if it has been well cared for and well fed, it is 

 better cut 4 or 5 times than if you didn't cut it at all; it helps to 

 develop the crown. 



A Member: How do you control your weeds through the season? 



