HARDY VEGETABLES 



them to destroy eggs of the asparagus beetle. The 

 following year do the same, but the third spring you 

 can cut the stalks every day as they appear for six 

 weeks every year after that for eight weeks. You 

 will have to watch for the asparagus beetle which 

 attacks the stalks and eats them. Their babies, slug- 

 like creatures, also eat the plants so they must be 

 poisoned. Spray the plants the first two years with 

 Arsenate of Lead 1/2 teaspoon to a quart of water. 

 The third year, when you begin to cut the stalks to 

 eat, allow one plant at each end of the row to 

 grow up and keep it sprayed with the poison; we 

 call these trap plants, for the insects will gather 

 upon them and be killed by the poison. Large as- 

 paragus growers leave a trap row about every twen- 

 ty-five feet, and these are kept covered with poison 

 continually. We burn the stalks in the fall to try 

 to prevent any beetles wintering over in the dead 

 foliage. 



Do not forget that asparagus requires humus. 

 Either plant a legume, like soy beans, beside the 

 asparagus to feed it, or cover the bed with humus 

 in the fall and fork it under in the spring. I like 

 soy beans for an asparagus care-taker better than 

 anything else. Sow the soy beans when the ground 

 becomes real warm. Cut the asparagus tops in the 



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