52 ASPARAGUS 
extension of their roots in search of moisture and food. 
Asparagus needs considerable water, and an acre of 
land will hold so much water and nomore. ‘The more 
plants there are on an acre the less water there will be 
for each plant, and what is true of water is also true 
of plant food. 
In field culture the distance adopted by asparagus 
growers varies from 3 x 3 feet (4,840 plants per acre); 
3x4 feet (3,640 plants ger acre); 4x4 feet (2,722 
plants per acre); 4x5 feet (2,178 plants per acre); 
5x6 feet (1,452 plants per acre); 6x6 feet (1,210 
plants per acre), and even more. If the idea is to 
have the plants so far apart that their roots can not 
interlace, twenty feet each way would not be too ex- 
travagant a distance, under favorable conditions, as 
will readily become apparent by a glance at Fig. 14. 
This illustration is an exact reproduction of the root 
system of an asparagus plant four years from the 
seed. The roots spread out upon a level floor meas- 
ured thirteen feet from tip to tip, the single roots 
averaging the thickness of a lead pencil. This root 
grew 1n Madison County, Ill., and was washed out of 
the ground—without having any of its roots torn—by 
the unusually heavy spring rains which caused the Piasa 
River to overflow its banks and sent a current rushing 
through the asparagus field in which it grew. If the 
plant had remained in its position a few years longer 
its roots would probably have extended ten feet in each 
direction. 
From this it does not follow, however, that aspara- 
gus should be planted twenty or even ten feet apart to 
produce the largest returns, but it plainly shows why 
