32 
This disease is as enduring as it is dangerous to asparagus culture. 
It is often two or three years after an attack before the plants entirely 
recover. The most effectual means of controlling the disease has been 
by means of fire. The cutting, careful collection, and immediate burn- 
ing not only of all visibly affected stalks, but of all asparagus brush, 
both cultivated and wild, early in the autumn are duties that each 
asparagus grower owes to himself and to every other grower. 
In order to prevent the crowns from becoming infected the ground 
should be kept light and open by frequent hoeings and cultivation, and 
during the winter the soil should be kept free from all standing water. 
Extreme dampness will, without doubt, induce root decay, and that is a 
favorable condition for de- 
veloping the disease. 
Perhaps the withholding 
of organic manures and sub- 
stituting chemical fertilizers 
may assist in preventing the 
disease; or the addition of 
sand and charcoal or coal 
ashes willaid in keeping the 
plants healthy and in absorb- 
ing the overabundant win- 
ter moisture. : 
Spraying may do some- 
thing toward checking the 
disease, and some standard 
fungicide, like Bordeaux 
mixture with paris green 
added, should be used after 
the cutting season is over 

Fig. 12.—Portion of rusted asparagus stems. (Redrawn; Ay Re ; - 
from Report, 1896, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment and as soon as the foliage 
BEOuE?) begins to develop; for, while 
this fungus is one which does not readily yield to treatment, some 
good may be accomplished, and the arsenite used will at least make 
the plants unwholesome food for the beetles and their larve. 
Professor Halsted says in a circular concerning the asparagus rust, 
issued September 18, 1896: 
When an asparagus field is badly infected with the rust, the general appearance 
is that of an unseasonable maturing of the plants. Instead of the usual healthy 
green color, the field has a brownish hue, as if insects had sapped the plants or frosts 
had destroyed the vitality. Rusted asparagus plants, when viewed closely, are 
found to have the skin of the stems, both large and small, lifted as if blistered, and 
in the ruptures of the epidermis dark-brown spots are readily seen. These brown 
dots or lines are of various sizes and shapes, and remind the close observer of similar 
spots in the broken skin of stems of grains and grasses and of the leaves of corn 
attacked by rust, but not the same kind as that of asparagus. 
The asparagus rust is due to fungus; that is, a minute plant (fig. 11), consisting of 
