130 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



facilitate evaporation and thus be dangerous in dry localities, even 

 in the rainy season. Where these conditions prevail thorough clean- 

 ing, plowing, and manuring will fit the field for the winter. Mr. 

 Murdock gives this advice: 



In the fall or early winter, when the tops have turned brown, the ground 

 should be cleaned and all rubbish burned, for if delayed the seed will drop 

 and get scattered, which will come up and may prove eventually to be the 

 worst weed the grower will have to contend with, for if allowed to grow after 

 once started it will soon fill the whole ground with a mass of roots, and very 

 soon spoil the whole patch. As soon as the ground is cleaned the whole field 

 should be well cultivated, and coarse manure spread over the entire surface, 

 so that the rains can dissolve and carry down the soluble plant food to the 

 roots. As the period of rest here in our mild and warm winters is very short, 

 with this strong and persisting plant no delay should be indulged in furnish- 

 ing the necessary plant food. 



Quite free use of common salt is desirable for asparagus pro- 

 viding 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. An application of five to ten tons of stable manure or one 

 ton of a complete commercial fertilizer per acre can be frequently 

 used. One grower in the Imperial valley has used twenty tons of 

 cow manure per acre annually for five years. On the best peat 

 lands the crop is grown for several years without fertilization. 



The surface application of all manures at the beginning of the 

 rainy season seems best to suit California conditions. 



Harvesting. Growers agree in advising very little, if any, cut- 

 ting the second year in the field. The third season should be very 

 productive if the plants have been generously treated, and thence 

 onward independently, if the strength of the soil can be kept up, 

 although canners are apt to refuse the product of plantings over 

 nine years old as likely to be tough and bitter. Still older fields do 

 yield good stuff in some cases. An average product is about two 

 tons of marketable shoots to the acre, while three and even four 

 tons are occasionally secured. Much evidently depends on the land 

 and the care of the plantation. 



Mr. Murdock's suggestions on policies in cutting are as fol- 

 lows: 



Cut all the shoots clean at each cutting during the season, whether they 

 are large enough to use or not, for if part of stalks are allowed to grow they 

 will prevent other buds from throwing up stalks, and make the season's cut- 

 ting 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 harvesting 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 roots 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 be- 



