'^ GENDERS AND ASPARAGUS 87 



results. Keep the ground moist, as the seeds 

 are slow to germinate; soak them a day or two 

 before sowing. 



4. Now use your brains very hard. When the 

 plants are about six inches high dig out with a 

 trowel very carefully (lest you leave part of a 

 crown in the ground) all those which have 

 broad, flat, twisted, or corrugated stems, or 

 put out leaves close to the soil. (If you have 

 planted only the very choicest seeds you will 

 probably find fewer of these bad plants than 

 Professor Whitten did; at least, that has been 

 my experience.) Throw away all these undesir- 

 able seedlings in a place where they cannot 

 possibly grow. Then take out with your trowel 

 still more carefully (so as to leave all the roots 

 undisturbed, which is easiest just after they 

 have been thoroughly watered) all the good 

 plants except those which are three or four 

 feet apart and can, therefore, be left perman- 

 ently. Find deeply spaded and richly manured 

 places for the good plants you take out with 

 your trowel (if the plants are very luxuriant a 

 small shovel is preferable), transplant them into 

 these, and water at once. I believe that the 

 reason why commercial one-year- and two-year- 

 old roots yield less than seedlings that are left 

 where they were sowed, is that when plants are 

 sent by mail or express the thousands of tiny 

 rootlets which are left behind in the discarded 

 soil are never fully replaced. Transplanting 



