22 
growth of weeds. keeping the soil light and cool, and preserving the 
moisture intact. 1t should not be made on topof the row. This sug- 
gestion the writer wishes to emphasize. 
Manuring in November in many cases does more harm than good, as 
the mass of manure causes many roots to decay, and those which do 
survive are weak and only produce small spears. It would be much 
better to rely upon liberal supplies of food through the growing season 
than to give manure when the bushes are cut, as at the former period 
the roots can more readily absorb the food given. By feeding in spring 
and summer the crowns are built up for the next season’s supply of 
grass. The roots of the asparagus are perhaps always active, but 
much less so in winter than at any other season, and they will obtain 
as much nutriment from the soil as they can then use. If heavily 
covered with manure sunshine is excluded, growth is checked, and the 
roots have to fight hard for existence at a time when they are none too 
strong. 
In the culture of green spears the manure is best utilized by broad- 
casting, this application to be followed by a thorough harrowing of 
the field. When white asparagus has been cut, either manuring in the 
trench between the ridges before disturbing them or harrowing down 
the ridges and then manuring broadcast is perhaps the most rational 
way. 
As between manuring in the row and between the rows, the latter 
should be selected as the evidently advisable one by which the feeding 
roots of the plants are most easily reached. Placing the manure in 
the row only reaches those feeding roots which are to be found about 
midway between the crowns, as just around the crowns are nothing 
but storage roots, besides it is not desirable to place manure too close 
to the crowns; but manuring between the rows puts the manure right 
where the summer rains can carry the fertility directly down into the 
(as it were) open mouths of the feeding roots. 
COST OF AN ASPARAGUS BED. 
The cost of establishing and maintaining an asparagus bed is so 
dependent upon the value of land, the cost of labor, the kind and 
amount of manure used, and the method of securing plants, ete., that 
no definite figures can be given, but can be best estimated by the 
farmer himself, remembering that it is only once in fifteen or twenty 
years that this has to be met. 
A prominent and successful New Jersey grower says: 
I can not give the cost in detail of establishing asparagus beds, as so much would 
depend upon whether one had roots to buy, and upon other matters. Where growers 
usually grow roots for their own planting the cost is principally the labor, manure, 
and loss of use of land for two years, upon which, however, a half crop can be had. 
The cost of maintaining a bed I can only estimate, as at times all the men on the 
farm may be at work at the asparagus, and at other times none at all, and I do not 
