CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 155 
porary growers can not jump in and out of, for the 
crop requires special preparation of the soil and patient 
waiting and culture pending the time for reaping a 
harvest, and the men who are always ready to jump 
into the annual crops always wish to realize at once, 
and do not generally have the capital to put into a 
crop that requires several years before realizing. 
Hence the asparagus crop has been left to the regular 
market gardeners, and has been uniformly profitable 
when well managed. 
As regards soil for asparagus in the South, it should 
be deep, light, warm, and well drained, either natu- 
rally or artificially. The level sandy soils that abound 
in all the South Atlantic Coast region, having a com- 
pact subsoil of reddish clay under it at a moderate 
depth, makes the ideal soil for the early asparagus. 
In preparing such a soil for the crop, it is well to 
be thorough in the matter, for the crop is to remain 
there indefinitely, and if success is to be expected the 
previous preparation should be of the most thorough 
character. Hence, as the soils best adapted to the 
growth of the plant are commonly deficient in vegeta- 
ble matter, which desirable characteristic can only 
be found in abundance on the lands too low and 
moist for the asparagus crop, some preparatory culture 
' should be used that will tend to increase the amount of 
organic decay in the soil. 
For this purpose there is nothing better than the 
Southern field or cow pea. ‘The land should be pre- 
pared by giving it a heavy dressing of acid phosphate 
and potash, and putting it in peas sown broadcast at the 
rateof a bushelor more per acre. With a heavy dressing 
