The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



obtain them very easily by cutting the tops of 

 asparagus when the berries are nearly ripe and 

 piling them in some convenient place where the 

 ground is mellow and free from weeds and grass 

 and leaving them undisturbed for a year; the 

 seeds will germinate and produce a large quantity 

 of thrifty young plants that later may be taken 

 up and set where desired, and all without any care 

 or labor further than the cutting of the tops. 



One may begin cutting the asparagus when the 

 bed is two years old, though small stalks will be 

 produced at that age. Cutting at this age should 

 not extend over a period of two weeks and in 

 an established bed should be limited to four. All 

 small stalks should be cut and not allowed to grow 

 during the cutting period as they would exhaust 

 the plant if allowed to grow, but when the cutting 

 period is over they should, of course, be allowed 

 to grow. 



Salt was formerly considered essential to suc- 

 cessful asparagus culture and certainly does no 

 harm, but its chief value is in keeping down weeds 

 and this can be quite as successfully done by 



