194 ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



fifteen to eighteen inches apart in fairly wide rows. 



Swiss Chard. Swiss chard provides ''greens'' all 

 through the season. Only one sowing need be made. 

 The chard is cultivated the same as the beet and 

 thinned to twelve inches. If, when the outer leaves 

 are as large as your hand, they are stripped off, a 

 new supply of tender ones will keep coming. 



Asparagus. Asparagus is a hardy plant. Its seed 

 may be sown either early in the spring or late in 

 the fall. When the roots are a year old, they should 

 be transplanted in rows five feet apart, away from 

 roots of trees or other plants. As much stable 

 manure as can be plowed under, plowing ten to 

 twelve inches deep, should be put on. Dig a trench 

 nine or ten inches deep, and lay the roots about 

 two feet apart in the bottom, covering them two 

 inches deep with loose soil. The young roots that 

 come up from the seed every summer should be 

 weeded out. If the seed balls are ,cut off before they 

 turn red, the plants can be kept from self- sowing. 

 When the stalks begin coming up in the spring, the 

 ground may be mulched with manure. This will 

 save hoeing and also feed the roots. 



Sweet Corn. If good seed is planted, it will pro- 

 duce a tender, sugary ear of sweet corn. Corn varie- 

 ties mix so easily that only the most careful selection 

 of kernels can improve a strain of corn. If the first 

 lot is planted early in April, it will ripen the latter 

 part of June in the latitude of New York. The corn 

 should be planted thickly in drills with six or seven 



