126 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



ful one, in districts where it is not necessary to provide 

 against severe freezing, for, as the plant is then dormant, 

 the juices of the manure are either evaporated or else 

 washed down by rains below the roots of the plant. I 

 remember having three small Asparagus beds under my 

 charge many years ago, on one of which I applied in De- 

 cember twenty-five pounds of Peruvian guano, dissolved 

 in fifty gallons of water ; in April the same application 

 was made to another bed, and the other was left without 

 anything. There was no perceptible difference between 

 that to which the liquid had been applied in December 

 and that to which none had been given, but on that 

 which received it in April nearly double the weight of 

 crop was produced. Since then, all our practice, cor- 

 roborated by direct experiment, IIRS convinced me beyond 

 all doubt, that manures, either liquid or solid, are un- 

 profitably employed when applied to plants in the dor- 

 mant state. 



In gathering the crop caution must be used not to in- 

 jure the plants by continued or excessive cutting ; for it 

 must be borne in mind that to reproduce annually its 

 crop of shoots in spring, something must be left to grow 

 to encourage the formation of fresh roots. In our market 

 gardens the practice is to cut off all the shoots as they 

 are ready, until the middle of May or 1st of June, when 

 the shoots begin to show signs of weakness ; then all is 

 left to grow and no more cut. In its preparation for 

 market the shoots are tied up in round bunches. The 

 size of the bunch is governed somewhat by the abundance 

 of the crop, and is about four to five inches in diameter 

 and from seven to nine inches in length, in weight from 

 two to three pounds, firmly tied at the butts and tops. 

 The tying material is the matting known as Raffia, as 

 that is soft, pliable, and has the necessary strength. The 

 proper bunching of Asparagus used to be quite an art, 

 but the "Asparagus Buncher" (see implements) has ren- 



