196 



PERENNIAL CROPS 



Dressing with Manure. — When the season's growth is over, 

 the tops are mowed and removed from the field. A dressing of 

 manure may be apphed broadcast at this time or early in the spring. 

 In either case, the spring treatment of the field consists in disking 

 the manure thoroughly into the soil before the asparagus starts 

 to grow. This work should usually be done at the earliest date 

 the soil is in workable condition. Since the roots are planted 

 deeply there is no danger of injuring them with the disk, and also 

 no danger of injuring any shoots if the work is done sufficiently 

 early. The field is disked lengthwise and crosswise, just as if no 

 crop were there. 



Fig. 120. — Asparagus root. 



Following this early spring treatment, cultivation between the 

 rows is begun as soon as the shoots appear above ground. This 

 cultivation is continued until the tops have grown so large that 

 they make it inconvenient to get between the rows with a horse 

 (Fig. 121). Late in the fall the tops are removed and a dressing 

 of manure applied either at that time or in the spring, the same 

 as in the preceding year. 



In the spring of the third year — that is, two full years after 

 the asparagus is planted — a light crop of shoots may be cut, but 

 under no consideration should the cutting continue for more than 



