125 Vegetable Growing in Southern Arizona. 



tivated, however, that it is not left broken up into large clods that 

 will permit the air to reach the underlying strata. The finer and 

 looser the surface mulch the better, and in our arid region it needs 

 to be deeper than elsewhere. 



Weeds injure growing crops by appropriating the available 

 plant food, by removing water from the soil, and, in the case of 

 some small vegetables, by excluding light. While a soil may be 

 very fertile, there seldom is present enough plant food, in the form 

 necessary for the use of plants, to support a crop of weeds and a 

 crop of vegetables at the same time. But weeds usually do the 

 greatest injury by removing from about the roots of the crop the 

 water needed by it. Not only do weeds require water for their in- 

 crease in size, but water is continually evaporating from the sur- 

 face of their leaves. While they may shade the surface of the soil 

 so as to check evaporation there, the evaporation from their leaves 

 is much more rapid than it would be from the surface of the un- 

 shaded soil, if it were properly cultivated. Thus, the destruction 

 of the weeds by cultivation not only curtails the loss of plant food 

 and of water, but the process produces all the desirable conditions 

 of the soil mentioned above. 



CULTURAL SUGGESTIONS. 



In the following pages an attempt is made to give the import- 

 ant facts concerning the growing of the principal vegetables raised 

 in southern Arizona. Space does not permit of giving detailed 

 cultural directions. The reasons for giving in a Station bulletin 

 what growers in most states obtain from horticultural books and 

 papers is, that conditions are unique and no published books or 

 articles give information applicable here. Wickson's "California 

 Vegetables," however, will be found to be very suggestive and 

 useful. 



ASPARAGUS. 



Culture. Asparagus is readily grown in southern Arizona, 

 much of the soil being well adapted to its culture. The slight 

 amount of common salt present in most of the soils is favorable to 

 its growth. It prefers a very rich soil, especially a well-manur- 

 ed one. Where the soil is not naturally saline, the addition of 



