TREATMENT OF ASPARAGUS FIELD 149 



plants should be placed so as to secure the proper moisture till they begin 

 to strike root. After the planting has been done, take a light steel garden 

 rake, or, if the rows are even enough, we would prefer the wheel hoe with 

 the rakes on, 'and stir the soil the whole length of the rows. Then, when 

 the shoots begin to grow and show themselves three or four inches high, 

 the soil should be gradually hoed or cultivated to the plants till the surface 

 is level. The ground should be kept moist, and in most localities irrigation 

 will be found necessary to secure the best results. Do not neglect thorough 

 cultivation, but after the roots begin to fill the ground do not work too 

 deep, as there is danger of injuring them. 



Giving the plant plenty of room favors its productive longevity, 

 while closer planting may secure larger acre-yield at first. In the 

 large commercial plantations on reclaimed lands of the Sacramento 

 and San Joaquin river bottoms the plants are usually given much 

 greater distances say nine or ten feet between the rows and the 

 plants two feet apart in the row. Much greater depth of covering 

 is secured by ridging the light, peaty soil, so that the shoots have 

 to pierce about a foot of covering on their way to the light. This 

 secures the great length of large white shoots which are character- 

 istic of California canned asparagus. The ridges are made by the 

 use of plows, disks arid crowders which cut deeply between the 

 rows and shift the soil over the root crowns, and the cutting is 

 done by plunging a long gouge into the side of the ridge as the 

 protrusion of a tip indicates the location of a good shoot. These 

 ridges are split with a plow or disk when the cutting season is over, 

 and the land leveled for the summer growth. This is simply an 

 enlargement of old practices, as described below, as the light soil, 

 largely made of partly decomposed vegetation, favors cheap shift- 

 ing of great bulks of it to serve different needs of plants. 



Later Treatment of the Asparagus Field. There are several 

 points to gain in subsequent cultivation of the asparagus field. One 

 is early starting of the plants, and for that purpose some growers 

 plow first away from the rows to open the ground better to the win- 

 ter sunshine ; another is to induce the growth of long, tender, white 

 shoots, and to retain moisture for prolonging the cutting season, 

 and to aid summer growth of foliage, and for these ends the early 

 spring plowing is to cover the rows with a deep layer of loose soil. 

 Mr. Boots' method is as follows: 



Now do not attempt to cut any asparagus until your plants have grown 

 two years, but cultivate thoroughly. The second season's growth you will 

 find quite strong, and along in the fall, after the frost has killed the tops, 

 take a mowing machine or scythe and cut the tops close to the ground, pile 



