142 How to Make the Garden Pay. 



ASPARAGUS. 



Asparagus Officinalis. German, SpaygeL French, Asperge. 

 Spanish, Asparrago. Asparagus not only gives us a most 

 excellent, wholesome and palatable vegetable, but also a great 

 quantity from a comparatively small area, and this at a time 

 when other fresh succulent vegetables are scarce, and the average 

 person's appetite sharp for just that kind of food after a long 

 period of " much meat and little vegetable." No wonder the 

 demand for the crop, in spite of heavy annual plantings, and 

 a steadily increasing area, has until now been larger than the 

 supply. Very little of it has thus far found its way to the 

 canning establishments, and it seems that these would be glad to 

 work up quantities of it, if a steady supply at reasonable rates 

 were available. The crop, in short, is, and probably will continue 

 to be, a paying one, both for the home gardener, whose little patch 

 supplies his table bountifully from April or May to July, for 

 eight or ten weeks, and for the market gardener near town or city 

 whose crop nets him from $200 to $400 per acre, and under very 

 favorable circumstances even more, and all this with comparatively 

 little labor and expense, and year after year when a bed or patch 

 has once been established, and reached bearing age. Yet many 

 home growers, especially among the farmers, have not yet learned 

 to appreciate this crop as they should for their own and their 

 family's good, and thus far fail to grasp the opportunities that it 

 offers. 



GROWING THE PLANTS. In order to grow a supply of first- 

 class plants, it is only necessary to sow seed thinly in drills one foot 

 apart, giving to each plant about two or three inches space in the 

 row. Of course, the soil should be well enriched, and thoroughly 

 prepared, and after sowing, well stirred between the plants by 

 means of hand wheel-hoe, hoe, rake, hand-weeder, etc. Weeds 

 must not be tolerated. In this way on rich, moist, mucky or sandy 

 soil I have often grown plants as large, and fully as good, as the 

 average two-year-old plants purchased of nurserymen. A surplus 

 of good plants can in most cases be disposed of to neighbors or 

 towns-people at a good price, say from 40 to 100 cents per 100 

 plants. 



STARTING THE BED. The price depends largely on earliness 

 and especially on size and general appearance. The earliest 

 " grass " brings the highest price, and market quotations taper off 

 gradually as the season advances. Large first-class stuff always 

 brings almost double what is paid for an inferior article. These 

 considerations should guide us in the selection of soil and site, 

 manuring, planting, etc. No factor that might have a tendency 

 to promote earliness, and size and quality of the " grass," can be 



