42 QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 



ton Fall planting has proven the best. We can ship asparagus roots, 

 from October to March, to any point within 1000 miles, but they must be 

 planted as soon as received, as if exposed to the air are soon injured in 

 vigor. 



If the rows be six feet apart, about GOOO plants are required to plant an 

 acre ; if at eight feet apart, 4000 plants are required to the acre. 



One-year-old well-developed roots are better than older ones. When 

 well planted and fertilized a cutting of stalks can be made about three 

 times the second year alter planting. Cutting should not be continued 

 too late in the Spring or the roots will become exhausted if the shoots are 

 not allowed to develop fully, for of course it must be understood the leaves 

 are the lungs of the plants. After cutting has ceased the ground should 

 be worked by plowing away from the rows and manuring alongside, 

 after which the earth should be thrown back. Twenty bushels of salt to 

 the acre, sown broadcast, may be used to advantage annually. The roots 

 of asparagus (though some penetrate six and eight feet in depth) are, 

 many of them, inclined to run near the surface ; the cultivator should ac- 

 cordingly, as far as possible, aim at flat culture. Early crops, like peas, 

 may be profitably grown between the rows of asparagus for the first two 

 or three years. Asparagus can be bleached and made especially tender 

 by mulching or covering with six inches of fine cut hay, straw or leaves. 



A season's cutting covers eight to ten weeks, and profitable cutting 

 continues up to ten years from planting, after which time the beds are 

 considered unprofitable by market gardeners. 



From 800 to 1500 two pound bunches of asparagus can be cut to the 

 acre, and a good field-hand can cut 150 bunches in a day. In the Philadel- 

 phia market asparagus bunches are always made to weigh two pounds, 

 and vary from ten to fifty stalks to the bunch, according to condition of 

 culture. A skillful workman can trim, wash, pack and tie about 300 

 bunches in a day. At the New York market green-pointed "grass" is 

 demanded, the Philadelphia market calls for white-pointed. Both colors 

 are found in the same field. The price obtained in the Philadelphia 

 market by truckers from, commission men is on an average ten cents per 

 bunch, never lower than eight cents, though sometimes the price paid by 

 commission men is forty to fifty cents. 



Asparagus is always in demand, such a thing as the market being 

 seriously glutted with it never occurs. The variety known as tlie Colossal 

 is the best, producing shoots often one inch in diameter, and sometimes 

 as many as fifty to the plant. 



One pound of asparagus seed will produce 2500 plants. The seed may 

 be sown when the cherry is in bloom or among the earliest operations in 

 the Spring, and is usually drilled in rows of ten inches. If the land be 

 friable, fertile and well cultivated, these seedlings can be set out the next 

 Spring. 



235. Q. Give directions as to planting French artichoke? 



A. This plant may be grown from seed sown when the cherry is in 



