POLE B.EANS. 33 



asparagus shoots than can be obtained from the most 

 elaborately made, and most excessively manured bed, the 

 plants in which are too thick. 



It is a popular notion that common salt is exceedingly 

 beneficial as a manure for asparagus. I do not know 

 that there is any positive proof of this, but at any rate, 

 the salt will do no harm, even if applied thick enough to 

 kill many of our common weeds. The salt is usually 

 sown broadcast on the asparagus bed early in the spring, 

 say at the rate of ten bushels per acre. It has been rec- 

 ommended to sow salt at the rate of two or three pounds 

 per square yard, or say at the rate of one hundred and 

 twenty bushels per acre. I mention this to show that 

 salt will not injure asparagus. 



In setting out asparagus plants we mark off the rows 

 with a common corn-marker three feet and a half or four 

 feet one way and two feet and a half or three feet the 

 other way. Set out a single plant where the lines cross. 

 It is desirable to disentangle and spread out the asparagus 

 roots horizontally in every direction. On light sandy 

 soil the work can be done with the hand, but on heavier 

 soils it is better to remove the soil with a hoe, at the 

 same time working and loosening the soil underneath. 

 This will greatly facilitate the operation of setting out 

 the plants. I do not think it is necessary or advisable to 

 set out the plants as deep as is sometimes recommended. 

 Three or four inches is deep enough. Sometimes a shovel- 

 ful of manure is spread on the soil above each plant. 



POLE BEANS. 



The most delicious of all Beans is the Lima. Like all 

 good things, however, it is more work to grow them than 

 common field beans. They have to be provided with 

 something to cling to. Poles, seven or eight feet long, 



