152 ASPARAGUS 
surface is at all times loose and fine to prevent evapo- 
ration, the average yield is 2,500 bunches per acre. If 
we estimate the tips at 25 per cent. of the crop, the 
gross receipts will amount to $200 per acre. 
After a given acreage is ready for cutting, which 
is the third year after planting, the annual cost of cul- 
tivation is not very much, if any, more than that of a 
crop of potatoes. It is a question whether the actual 
cost of growing and marketing an acre of asparagus is 
not less than that of an acre of potatoes. Some growers 
assert it is three times as much work to take care of a 
given acreage of asparagus as of potatoes; admitting 
it, the relative cost is stated above. 
C. L,.. Aijzase 
Nassau County, N. Y. 
ASPARAGUS IN NEW JERSEY 
An important point in asparagus culture is to 
remove the top growth in the fall of the year. For 
this purpose I use a mowing-machine, then rake up 
the brush and burn it on the bed. After this I top- 
dress heavy with manure, leaving it lie on the land 
until spring. 
Just as soon as the ground is fit to work at all I put 
on a disk-harrow, and cut it about four times each way 
until itis thoroughly pulverized. Then with a smooth- 
ing-harrow I level it, and repeat the smoothing-harrow 
operation about once a week to keep down all weeds 
coming through. ‘Then we let it go as long as wecan, 
possibly two weeks, and at the appearance of weeds 
we take an ordinary sweet-potato ridger having a 
