80 ASPARAGUS 
Then sow about 500 pounds of high grade potato 
fertilizer per acre in the drill. As the weeds com- 
mence to grow, cultivate and hoe, letting the soil cave 
down in the drill. About the middle of the season 
sow about 500 pounds more of fertilizer in the drill. 
Continue to cultivate and hoe the remainder of the sea- 
son. At the end of the season the drill should be 
entirely filled up. The second year sow about 2,000 
pounds of fertilizer per acre broadcast, plow the ground 
and harrow it down level, and keep the ground clean. 
The third year open the drill over the asparagus with 
a one-horse plow, broadcast 2,000 pounds of fertilizer 
per acre about the time the shoots begin to show, 
and back-furrow it up with a plow over the drill to form 
a ridge. Then smooth the ridge down with a home- 
made implement resembling a snow-plow reversed. 
Cut every morning all the shoots that show through 
the ground. Do not cut more than four weeks in the 
first cutting season. Continue to broadcast 2,000 
pounds of fertilizer per acre every year.’’ 
From what has been said in regard to the various 
methods of applying fertilizers to asparagus, it will be 
readily understood that it can make but little differ- 
ence how it is distributed, whether on the rows, be- 
tween the rows, or broadcast, so long as enough of it 
is put on the land. In an established asparagus bed 
the entire ground is a dense network of roots, and 
wherever the fertilizer is put some of the roots will 
find it, but not those of the plants over the crowns of 
which it has been planted ; not more so than the feed- 
ing roots of an apple tree can reach a heap of manure 
piled around its trunk. 
