37 



If for any reason the grass is to be held for a few days, and it cannot 

 be put into cold storage, it is better not to bunch it as it comes from 

 the field, but to carry it to a cold cellar and lay it on the floor. It 

 can be kept in this way for a few days without much trouble. 



The customary box in which it is sent to market is the common 

 Boston bushel box, holding three layers of one dozen bunches each, 

 and covered by four pieces of lath nailed across the top. In very hot 

 or muggy weather it is well not to place any paper, or other close 

 covering, over the grass, but to let it have all the air it can get. Within 

 twenty miles of Boston it is boxed the afternoon of the day it is packed, 

 and carried that afternoon or night, by wagon, to market, so that it 

 is ready for sale early the next morning. If much farther than twenty 

 miles from market it is not boxed until the next morning after pack- 

 ing, and is then sent by as early an express as possible. 



While the market calls for the large grades of grass as strongly as it 

 now does, — and it probably will continue to do so, — it will be to 

 the grower's advantage to try to supply it. To have fields producing 

 this quality of grass new beds need to be set out frequently, to take 

 the place of the old ones as they fail. Twelve or sixteen years of cut- 

 ting is as long as they will be in the most profitable stage. To destroy 

 an old bed it is as well not to plow out the old roots, but to plow shallow, 

 or wheel harrow above the rows, keeping down all growth from the 

 roots for two or three years, and letting them rot in the ground. After 

 four or five years the field can be plowed to any depth wished, and it 

 is not robbed of a lot of fertility by carrying off all the roots. While 

 killing out the roots any hoed crop can be grown, and almost any 

 crop will do well on an old asparagus field. 



There does not seem to be any efficient and economical way of 

 preventing asparagus rust. The best thing to do is to get the most 

 resistant variety, and after you have established a bed, to select from 

 the most resistant and best market types of stalks, seed for setting 

 new fields, or obtain seed from some one you know to be doing this. 



During the last fifteen years the demand for asparagus has grown 

 faster than the supply, and the prospect of good profit from the grow- 

 ing of it in the future is good, especially for the large grade. All the 

 extra profit in growing the large grade does not come from the extra 

 price received, but partly from the more economical handling of the 

 crop. It takes the same time to cut and pack the same number of 

 little stalks as it does of large ones, but, after they are packed and 

 tied, there is not more than one-third or one-half as many bunches. 

 Therefore get good stock, give it plenty of room, feed it high, give it 

 the best of care, put up the product honestly, get a reputation for 

 good grass, and the reward will be satisfactory. 



