122 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



of the market), and to do this he must avoid stunted 

 plants. A good asparagus plantation is expensive. It 

 brings in no return for three years, but when it once 

 comes into bearing, it remains productive for twenty 

 years or more, and affords good profits. Unless it can 

 be properly made from the start, it had better not be 

 undertaken. 



The seed of asparagus is not injured by frost. It may 

 be sown from December 1st to the middle of March. Se- 

 lect high, sandy or well-drained, light land, which has 

 been well manured; sow in drills two feet apart, and one 

 inch deep; the plants should stand about three inches 

 apart in the row. At these distances, one-fourth of an 

 acre will grow twenty-one thousand seven hundred and 

 eighty plants, or a sufficient number to plant five or six 

 acres. If proper care is taken of them during their 

 growth, the plants will be superior to any of one year's 

 growth, purchasable at any price from any Northern nurs- 

 ery, simply in consequence of our longer and warmer 

 growing season. In addition to this, are the advan- 

 tages of being able in transplanting to return them to the 

 soil, fresh and without injury to the roots. 



THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 



One of the chief claims' of asparagus to popular favor 

 is its early appearance in the spring; and hence, a heavy 

 cold clay, particularly if badly drained, should be avoided. 

 A light, high, warm, sandy soil, heavily fertilized, is 

 best adapted to this crop, and it especially flourishes 

 when such soil is located near its native habitat the sea 

 coast. The more manure, the better the cultivation, the 

 larger and better will be the " grass;" therefore the land 

 should be in fine, mellow condition before the application 

 of the manure. After deep plowing, subsoiling, and har- 

 rowing, a coating of about a hundred wagon loads of 

 green stable manure to the acre, without much long litter, 



