ASPARAGUS FOR THE MARKET GARDEN. 429: 
Twenty-five to fifty roots are enough to supply an ordinary family. 
Seed may be sown, but this is hardly profitable. The plants should be set in 
one or two rows for convenience in cultivation. In this way a family can 
have something easily procured, palatable and easy to prepare for the ta- 
ble, for sixty days, and at a time, too, when few vegetables are accessible. 
If good care is taken of an asparagus bed it will become more productive 
as it gets older. 
Mr. Burnap (Iowa): What do you call late? 
Mr, Beardsley: From the first to the 12th of July is our closing 
season. There are about sixty days for cutting asparagus. 
Prof. Waldron (N. D.): I find we can extend the season of 
cutting by planting at different depths. Some is planted seven 
inches deep. That planted very deep gives a late cutting, and fre- 
quently for the late cutting a higher price is paid than for the earlier 
cutting, because there is no competition. 
USES OF A APPLE SEEDLING. 
F,. W. KIMBALL, AUSTIN. 
In my native state the main use of apple seedlings was to raise apples to 
make cider of, and they played a good part. With us the use should be, 
primarily, to test and develop a fruit that may be palatable and a tree that 
may be hardy and fruitful. If every one taking an interest would plant seed 
of the best of our home grown apples, I am confident that out of the various 
trials we would soon produce at least a few varieties that would possess all 
the needed qualities for this climate, but as the great desideratum is to get a 
hardy winter apple, and, as a rule, like begets like, we can hardly expect to 
get a winter apple from the seed of a summer or fall kind. Once in a while 
nature delights in throwing a sport, but it is so seldom that we need not 
think of depending on such freaks. Let us get seed of as late varieties as 
possible, grown in this vicinity, and see if we cannot improve on the parent. 
I fully believe that our apple of the future is coming from the seed crossed 
by our intelligent experimenters in a systematic manner. Out of all of the 
experiments going on we can’t fail to soon have candidates for the thousand 
dollar prize, the offering of which is in my opinion the wisest act ever per- 
formed by this society; and the state legislature can well afford to supple- 
ment it with a ten thousand dollar premium to the one who wins it. What | 
a stimulus that would give to the planting and rearing of seedlings, and 
what glorious results would be bound to follow. 
In another way the raising of seedlings from home grown seed can be 
made of great advantage to the state. Could and would all our nurserymen 
propagate their trees on home grown roots from home grown seed, I am 
confident that the trees would start out on a root system far more hardy 
than now obtained from seed raised anywhere but at home. The result in 
a few years would be to put orcharding in this section a decade ahead, at 
least. And as like begets like, can there be any question as to this proposi- 
tion? I think that most, if not all, our nurserymen believe this. Then let us 
ask them to put it into execution; even if their apples are worth a dollar a 
‘bushel, they can better afford to make cider and vinegar and save their 
seeds to plant than to take foreign seeds as a gift. 
