14 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1878. 



Board of Agriculture, who, he said, if they know anything they will not 

 tell it. He questioned the propriety of a general farmer raising a great 

 variety of vegetables ; he said that would do if he markets his products 

 to families, but the best crops can be got by special culture, and by de- 

 votion to special crops ; he is sixteen miles from market, and finds better 

 profit in raising a few crops largely : he has a strong hold on onions ; in 

 starting new ground there is no trouble if you are generous with the 

 manure : potash is essential ^ hence wood ashes are valuable ; he got last 

 year 800 bushels to the acre ; he put his rows fourteen inches apart ; two- 

 thirds of the field, through a mistake, got twice as much seed : s he in- 

 tended ; they grew three and four deep, and too large for ordinary 

 customers ; the true time to kill the weeds is before they come up ; he 

 uses the new scuffle hoe, but it requires the ground to be entirely free 

 from sticks and stones ; he gets over fifteen rods in three minutes ; good 

 seed is important ; that raised at home is surest ; with his own seed he 

 had no "stiff necks" or scullions. 



He also gave his treatment of asparagus, of which he is a large grower ; 

 it usually pays from S3C0 to S500 per acre ; he was the first to begin the 

 crop in 1854, and now over one hundred acres are used in this crop in 

 Arlington ; it requires a sandy soil and high manure ; the salt theory is 

 a myth ; it is not a manure, and it is not a necessity to asparagus, 

 although the books say so. He gave a sketch of the history of the plant, 

 and of his own experience ; his best success has been without salt ; he 

 has taken the first prize for seventeen years, at the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, without salt. 



He also grows about 10,' 00 caulitlowers each year ; he uses good 

 ground, with heavy manuring, to which he adds one hundred pounds of 

 muriate of potash to the acre ; he gets all his seed from Italy, and is sure 

 there is no good seed here ; his plants head in hot weather without fail ; 

 a heavy dressing of salt will laten the asparagus crop, and will make it 

 grow crooked ; he found the Conover a poorer variety than others ; he 

 puts the crowns of his plants eight inches under ground, and ploughs 

 over it ; every inch deeper makes the crop a week later ; his rows are 

 three feet apart and plants fifteen inches apart in the rows ; he raises 

 seed from only the plants which give large stalks, good color, and good 

 shape he lets the first shoots run up to seed, so that there is no crossing 

 with the smaller plants. 



Mr. Rice said he had plants from a bed thirty-five years old which are 

 better than any of the new varieties. In regard to cultivating onions he 

 said he could not use the new scuffle hoe on his soil ; it is adapted only 

 to a perfectly pulverized soil. 



Mr. James Draper spoke of the difficulty of marketing vegetables ; a 

 milk man can do well in carrying out his vegetables ; with only beets. 



