42 ASPARAGUS 
method, there is a decided difference, the gain of 
the male over the female plants being seventy-six, 
fifty-two, sixty-three, and thirty-one per cent. for the 
four periods respectively. The difference in yield 
between the two was greatest at first, and diminished 
toward the last, which practically amounts to the same 
thing as the male being earlier than the female. There 
is a still further difference between the two in quality 
of product, the shoots of the female plant being 
smaller and inferior to those of the male. 
‘*Tt is not safe to draw conclusions from such limited 
observations as these, further, at least, than to accept 
them as representing the truth approximately. Allow- 
ing a wide margin for possible error, there would still 
seem to be sufficient difference in productive capacity 
between the male and female plants to justify the 
selection of the former and rejection of the latter when 
a new plantation is to be started. If the figures given 
in the table are taken as a basis, the gain in the crop, 
if the male plants alone were used, would each season 
pay for all the plants rejected, and leave a handsome 
margin at the end of the term of years when an aspar- 
agus bed has served its period of usefulness. Male 
plants can be secured by division of old plants, or by 
selecting those that bear no seed, after they have 
attained the age of two years.”’ 
In summing up the results of this experiment, 
Professor Green states that male asparagus plants are 
about fifty per cent. more productive than female 
plants, and the shoots being larger have a greater 
market value. 
