THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION 47 
laid in the following proportions and order: Six inches 
of common dunghill manure, eight inches of turf, six 
inches of dung as before, six inches of sifted earth, 
eight inches of turf, six inches of very rotten dung, 
eight inches of the best of earth. The last layer of 
earth must then be well mixed witn the last of dung. 
The compartment must now be divided into beds five 
feet wide by paths constructed of turf two feet in 
breadth and one foot in thickness.’’ 
A bed prepared in this manner, and planted and 
cultivated with as much painstaking care, will no doubt 
produce asparagus of unsurpassed quality, and may 
last forever. Yet the use of modern implements and a 
better knowledge of the nature and requirements of the 
plant have demonstrated that first-class asparagus can 
be produced with far less expense and labor. While a 
deep and loose soil produces earlier and better crops 
than a heavy and shallow one, indiscriminate deepen- 
ing of the soil by trenching or other means is not 
always desirable, even where the cost does not come 
into consideration. When thesubsoil is very light and 
poor and deficient in humus, the placing of the better 
surface soil below and the infertile lower strata above, 
trenching would be a positive detriment. The same 
would be the case where the subsoil consists of heavy 
impervious clay. 
In the fall preceding planting the land should be 
plowed deeply and left in the rough state during the 
winter. Subsoiling has often been recommended, yet 
practical growers but rarely make use of the subsoil 
plow in the preparation of asparagus plantations, 
although the value of subsoiling where the subsoil is 
