182 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



the row. If you have any fine fertilizer put it in the row 

 where you want to set your plants ; mix well with the soil 

 and set your plants over it. Place the plants in the bottom 

 of the prepared furrow, spread out the roots and cover 

 crown and all about two or three inches the lighter the 

 soil the deeper the 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 sur- 

 face 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 re- 

 claimed lands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin river 

 bottoms the plants are usually given much greater dis- 

 tances 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 characteristic of California canned 

 asparagus. The ridges are made by the use of plows, disks 

 and 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 cut- 

 ting 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 



