40 ASPARAGUS 
Equally important is a careful selection of the indi- 
vidual plants to be set out. A crown with four or five 
strong, well-developed buds is far better than one 
with a dozen or more of weak and sickly ones, as the 
latter will always produce thin and poor spears of poor 
quality. It is therefore highly to be recommended to 
select only plants with not over six buds and discard 
all others. The roots should be strong and of uniform 
thickness, succulent and not too fibrous. Dry or 
withered roots have to be cut off, and plants with 
many bruised or otherwise damaged roots should be 
rejected entirely. The best roots are the cheapest. 
MALE AND FEMALE PLANTS 
It has long been observed that all of the asparagus 
plants in a bed do not produce seeds, owing to the 
fact that the male and female flowers in asparagus are 
nearly always borne on separate plants. Seed bearing 
is an exhaustive process, and, as might be supposed, 
those plants that have produced seed have less vigor 
than those that have not. In order to determine the 
difference in vigor between the seed bearing and non- 
seed bearing plants, Prof. William J. Green, horticul- 
turist of the Ohio Experiment Station, staked off fifty 
of each in a plantation of half an acre. When the 
cuttings were made the shoots taken from male and 
female plants were kept separate, and the weight of 
each recorded in Bulletin No. 9, Volume III., of the 
Ohio Station, as follows: 
‘The cuttings were made at regular intervals and 
in the ordinary manner, as for market purposes. The 
weight of shoots taken at each cutting is not given in 
