90 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



ence whether j^ou plough it in or not ; it will get down there 

 in that loose soil ; but it is usually ploughed in. At any 

 rate, it would be covered in by the method of throwing this 

 land up into ridges and making these furrows. After it is 

 all furrowed out, it is planted with asparagus roots from one 

 to two years old ; some prefer one, and others two-year old 

 plants. Those roots are planted, — depending upon the 

 views of the planter, — from one foot to twenty inches 

 apart in the row. If you plant them only one foot apart, 

 you may realize a full crop a great deal quicker than if you 

 planted them farther apart ; but if you plant them eighteen 

 or twenty inches apart, at the end of ten years your bed 

 will be better than if it was planted thicker at first. These 

 roots are covered about two inches deep. If they are planted 

 in the spring they will come up through the soil, and when 

 the weeds begin to start, the sides of those ridges are hoed 

 down, a little at a time, which helps fill the furrow the plants 

 are in, and by the first of August the land is usually levelled 

 up so that you can run a cultivator between the rows. That 

 is usually kept up through the season ; that is, the weeds 

 are destroyed and the ground kept loose. On my place, Ave 

 manure it the next year, and plough in the manure about 

 four inches deep. The stubble having been cleaned off, we 

 go right over the whole bed with a swivel plough, with one 

 horse, about four inches deep ; it is then harrowed, and if 

 there are any lumps, we run a brush harrow over it, and 

 leave it in that way. The next year it is not customary to 

 cut the asparagus ; it goes on with the weeds kept out, with- 

 out any other crop. The year afterwards we usually cut it 

 until about the first of June — not cutting it too long that 

 year ; and if the bed is found to show any weakness or fail- 

 ure of the plants to throw up good, strong stalks, the 

 quicker you stop cutting the better. The year afterwards 

 it is cut during the full season, and from that year it keeps 

 on increasing in the quantity produced up to eight or ten 

 years from the time of planting. Now, I say what I be- 

 lieve, that no livinof man can aflbrd to cultivate bv the old 

 method in competition with the method which I have de- 

 scribed, because asparagus can be grown a great deal cheaper 

 in that way. 



