264 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the trenches may be rilled with plow or otherwise. All that is necessary 

 the first year is to cultivate it sufficiently to keep down the weeds. 



The kind of manure and its condition when applied to an old bed are 

 not material: fresh stable manure may be used, no matter how coarse, 

 so long as it can be plowed under. But in preparing the ground for a new 

 bed, fine, well-rotted manure is to be preferred. Asparagus always starts 

 into growth very early in the spring, therefore the bed should be cultiva" 

 ted late in the fall, that it may dry out and be ready to work as early as 

 possible the next spring. 



For this mode of treatment winter protection is a great benefit. If 

 there is no danger of injury to the plants from severe cold, still a heavy 

 mulch put on before the ground freezes will keep all or nearly all the 

 frost out of the soil, so that the plants will start very much earlier in the 

 spring. A thick coating of fresh stable manure is the best possible mulch, 

 and is also a good way to apply manure. The coarsest of the latter 

 should be raked off in the spring, and the balance cultivated under. 



The question whether salt is needed on an asparagus bed is by no means 

 settled. While some claim that it is necessary and should be applied 

 every year, others say that asparagus does not need salt any more than 

 any other vegetable. Without undertaking to decide the question, it is 

 certain that asparagus is not injured by the application of sufficient salt 

 to destroy almost all other vegetation near it. 



If not specially used as a fertilizer, the free use of salt on an asparagus 

 bed is an advantage; it has a tendency to destroy insects and prevent the 

 growth of weeds, and by attracting moisture from the atmosphere, helps 

 to carry the bed safely through a drouth. Coarse or refuse salt may be 

 applied every spring, and enough can be used to make the ground look 

 white. The third year a little asparagus may be cut, but be very careful 

 not to continue the cutting too long. 



A full crop cannot be expected until the fourth or fifth year It is a 

 good plan, each year, when you stop cutting, to apply at that time a lib- 

 eral dressing of stable manure, or other fertilizer, and cultivate it in. 



The object of this is to insure a strong growth of tops and roots during 

 the summer and fall, for the amount of the next crop depends upon the 

 growth made this fall. The profits are just in proportion to the amount 

 of manure used. Another mode of treatment is, to leave the tops on until 

 spring; it answers as a mulch in protecting the bed from freezing too 

 deep, and it is practiced by growers who cannot or do not manure or mulch 

 during the winter. Early in the spring they are mown off and raked into 

 heaps and burrjed. The cultivator and harrow are then used to make the 

 ground level and mellow. Asparagus should always be cut a little 

 below the surface of the ground, if for no other reason than the sharp 

 stubs left may be out of the way. The stalks must always be cut before 

 the heads show any signs of branching out. The' lengths should range 

 from six to ten inches. The size of the bunch must depend upon the 

 market in which it is to be sold. I do not let anything grow up while 

 cutting, no matter how small it may be. 



I keep all cut close until I have finished cutting for the season. Then 

 I turn a light furrow with a one-horse plow over each row, and let it go 

 until fall, keeping out all weeds. With good treatment in the way of 

 food, clean cultivation, and moderation in cutting, a bed may outlast a 



