HARVESTING ASPARAGUS. 185 



Quite free use of common salt is desirable for asparagus, 

 providing the land is not naturally saline, as is the case in 

 some regions where it is largely grown. Cheap, refuse 

 salt answers well, and in garden practice the use of any 

 old brine from the pickle or pork barrel. 



The surface application of all manures at the begin- 

 ning of the rainy season seems best to suit California con- 

 ditions. 



Harvesting. Growers agree in advising very little, if 

 any, cutting the second year in the field. The third season 

 should be very productive if the plants have been gener- 

 ously treated, and thence onward independently, if the 

 strength of the soil can be kept up. Mr. Murdock's sug- 

 gestion on policies in cutting are as follows: 



"Cut all the shoots clean at each cutting during the 

 season, whether they are large enough to use or not, for 

 if parts of stalks are allowed ,to grow they will prevent 

 other buds from throwing up stalks, and make the season's 

 cutting short. Keep the ground well cleaned during the 

 harvesting period, and if you have been liberal with your 

 fertilizers and have kept your ground moist, your crop 

 will last as long as a profitable demand is likely to exist. 

 Yet, beware of prolonging the harveting period too late, 

 so as to weaken the next year's crop, as the nature of the 

 crop requires that, to reproduce annually its crop of 

 shoots, something must be left to grow so as to foster the 

 formation of new shoots and a new set of buds. If your 

 season commences early you should lay by the knife later 

 on to correspond; then let all the tops grow and do not 

 cull out the large shoots afterward. The time that should 

 elapse between cuttings varies in different soils, some 

 being warmer and consequently quicker than others ; then 

 again, much depends on the weather ; some years we will 

 have warm days in February, which will necessitate cut- 

 ting twice each week, and it may be followed by cold days 

 in March, when the cuttings will be meager once a week ; 

 and again in the warm days of May it may require three 



