GROWING PLANTS FROM SEED 145 



distant from each other, the conditions of soil, moisture, and heat 

 are comparable and so are the growers' results. But it is not essen- 

 tial that just these conditions prevail. In the Santa Clara Valley 

 and elsewhere deep alluvial soils without any great amount of 

 vegetable debris have for many years furnished large quantities to 

 the markets. Any deep, rich sandy loam, moist enough to give a 

 winter and spring crop and a summer growth of foliage to rein- 

 force the roots, will grow good crops of asparagus for years with 

 proper cultivation, generous manuring, and occasional salting. 

 Soils which are too wet or too dry or too heavy to allow free growth, 

 yield inferior shoots, tough, stringy, or bitter as the case may be. 

 Of course a heavy soil may be improved for a garden bed of aspara- 

 gus by free use of sand and manure well worked through it but 

 commercial plantings should only be made on naturally fit soils. 



Growing the Plants. Asparagus grows readily from seed 

 and in this state well-grown yearling roots are used for planting 

 out in preference to older ones. The house gardener can, there- 

 fore, save a year's time by buying roots from the seedsmen, but 

 for the large plantation the grower will usually grow his own plants. 

 This can be done in the open air; adequate moisture and a light, 

 fine soil will insure success the first year if the seed is grown early 

 enough to get the benefit of a full season's growth. A light, coarse 

 soil which may be excellent for the after growth of the roots, is 

 not so good for starting the seedlings because of danger of sur- 

 face drying. A mixture of fine sediment will improve a coarse soil 

 for this purpose. A very good way to get quick germination and 

 large root growth is to start the seed bed in February or March, as 

 the soil becomes warm: get good, fresh seed; take boxes, say apple 

 boxes, or any boxes of about that size; get good, clean sand, and 

 mix sand and seed together, about fifteen parts of sand to one part 

 of seed; fill the boxes with sand and seed mixed as described; set 

 away in a warm place and pour on water, quite warm, two or three 

 times during the first two days. 



In the meantime, prepare and richly pulverize a piece of ground 

 for a seed bed. Make rows about four feet apart by raking all 

 lumps and clods away, forming a kind of ditch say two or three 

 inches below the level of the land. Make your ditches about one 

 foot wide, and watch the seed closely, for if the seed is good in 

 about seven days nearly all the seeds will begin to sprout. Then 

 take the boxes of sand and seed to the prepared ground and sprinkle 



