198 PERENNIAL CROPS 



last cultivation. Late in the fall the asparagus tops are mowed 

 and burned; or, if cowpeas have been sown, the entire growth of 

 peas and asparagus tops may be mowed and cured for hay. 



Annual Dressings of Manure. — To maintain an asparagus 

 plantation in full productiveness through a series of years, it is 

 essential that it receive a top dressing of manure every year. 

 The manure may be applied at any one of three different times, 

 but in all cases is appUed at such a time that it can be worked 

 into the soil with a disk before growth starts following its appU- 

 cation. If applied in the fall, it is disked into the ground the fol- 

 lowing spring. It may be applied in the spring immediately 

 before the early disking or immediately before the disking at the 

 close of the cutting season. 



Cutting the Crop. — ^As already intimated, an asparagus plan- 

 tation may be seriously injured by continuing cutting too late 

 in the season. This applies to an old plantation as well as a young 

 one, although the cutting in a well-established plantation in full 

 vigor may continue for six weeks without seriously impairing the 



Fig. 122. — One form of knife used in cutting asparagus. 



vigor of the plants. If cutting is continued for eight weeks, as is 

 the practice with some growers, the shoots in the last cuttings are 

 likely to be small, indicating the impaired vigor of the plants; and 

 if cutting is continued after the small shoots become numerous, 

 the bad effect of this late cutting is likely to be evident in the small 

 size of the shoots during the entire cutting season the next year. 

 The plants must be given time after the last cutting to make vig- 

 orous g^rowth and store up food in their roots for the next year's 

 crop. A serious mistake made by commercial asparagus growers 

 is in cutting their plantations too late. For cutting asparagus a 

 special knife is ordinarily used (Fig. 122). 



Blanched Asparagus. — The method of culture outlined above 

 has reference primarily to green asparagus, which constitutes the 

 bulk of the crop in the United States. Green asparagus is cut an 

 inch or two below the surface of the ground after the shoots have 

 attained a height of six to eight inches. The production of blanched 

 or " white " asparagus differs from that of the green mainly in 



