VEGETABLES ASPARAGUS. 123 



two to three inches deep, in which sow the seed by hand 

 or seed drill, as is most convenient, using from five to 

 seven pounds of seed (which costs fifty cents per pound), 

 to each acre. After sowing the seed and before covering 

 tread down the seed in the rows evenly with the feet 

 (see " Use of the Feet in Sowing and Planting") ; then 

 draw the back of a rake lengthwise over the rows, after 

 which roll the whole surface. As soon as the land is dry 

 and fit to work in Spring, the young plants of Aspara- 

 gus will start through the ground sufficiently to define the 

 rows in two or three weeks. At once begin to cultivate 

 with hand or horse cultivator, and stir the ground so as 

 to destroy the embryo weeds, breaking the soil in the 

 rows between the plants with the fingers or hand weeder 

 for the same purpose. This must be repeated at inter- 

 vals of two or three weeks during the summer, as the 

 success of this method is entirely dependent on keeping 

 down the weeds, which, if allowed to grow, would soon 

 smother the Asparagus plants, which for the first season 

 of their growth are weaker than most weeds. In two or 

 three months after sowing, the Asparagus will have at- 

 tained ten or twelve inches in height. It must now be 

 thinned out so that the plants stand nine inches apart 

 in the rows. By fall they will be from two to three feet 

 high, strong and vigorous, if the directions for culture 

 have been faithfully followed. When the foliage dies 

 (but not before), cut the stems down to the ground and 

 cover the lines for five or six inches on each side with 

 two or three inches in depth of rough manure. As the 

 spring again returns, renew the same process of cultiva- 

 tion to keep down weeds the second year exactly as was 

 done for the first, and so on to the spring of the fourth 

 year, when a crop may be cut that will well reward all 

 the labor that has been expended. Sometimes, if the 

 land is particularly suitable, a crop may be had well 

 worth marketing the third year, but as a rule, it will be 



