25 
three weeks, as the roots will not stand a full harvest of six or eight 
weeks before they are five years old without suffering permanent 
injury. 
If green asparagus is desired, the stalks need be cut only so far 
beneath the surface as to furnish a 9 or 10 inch spear, the major 
part of which, say 6 inches or more, will be green, and of course above 
ground. If white asparagus is sought for, the rows will have been 
ridged from 10 to 15 inches above the crowns, and the spears must 
be cut as soon as they show at, and before they peep above, the surface. 
This means cutting 9 or 10 inches below the surface. To accomplish 
this, long chisellike knives of various shapes are used, the most com- 
mon kind in use being shown in fig. 3. These knives are from 12 to 
15 inches long, and the cutting edge is on the end. 
Cutting should be done at least every day, and when vegetation is 
rapid twich each day will be necessary for white asparagus, and is often 
desirable when the green sort is being cut. 
In many European beds a knife is never used, the following being 
the method used: 
The slightly hardened crust around the emerging bud is pushed aside. The fore 
and middle fingers, separate, are then pushed deeply into the soft mound, pushing the 
earth outward. If a rising shoot be met with on the way down, it is carefully 
avoided. A second plunge of the two fingers and pushing out of the earth usually 
bring them to the hardened ground about the crest of the root. The forefinger is 
then slipped behind the base of the shoot and pushed gently outward, when the 
shoot at once snaps clean off at its base. This plan has the advantage of leaving no 
mutilated shoots or decaying matter in the ground. The earth is loosely and gently 
raked up with the hand, so as to leave the surface of the mound (ridge) as it was 
before, care being taken not to press the earth in any way, but to keep it quite fri- 
able. The shoots are not rubbed or cleaned in any way. It would disfigure them, 
and they do not need it. 
In this country the cutting is usually done by men, who, passing 
along between the rows, carefully cut all discoverable spears, if white 
asparagus is being put up, or, if green, all those which are in proper 
condition and which by cutting 2 or 3 inches below the surface will be 
long enough for market. 
The manner of cutting is to take hold of the end of the spear with 
the left hand, insert the knife to the desired depth, carefully avoiding 
other spears, and sever the spear if possible with one downward stroke, 
at the same time drawing out the severed spear and dropping it into a 
basket carried for that purpose. An active farm hand, after a little 
practice, should be able to cut several hundred bunches per day. 
The spears are sorted into extras, primes, and seconds, ranging from 
10 to 50 spears to the bunch, there being no difference in the diame- 
ter, but considerable in weight of the bunches. Of course the large, 
fine spears sell highest, but to the cultivated taste the moderate-sized 
but tender spears found in primes are preferable. 
The bunching is done in the barn or in a shed, and the operators are 
