CULTURAL VARIETIES 23 



the results of which are given in Bulletin 70, as fol- 

 lows: 



' ' The seed of ten varieties of asparagus was planted. 

 A good stand was secured, and the young plants were 

 cultivated during the summer in the usual way. 

 Early the following spring the entire patch was dug 

 up and the roots heeled in. The same ground was 

 then prepared for a permanent plantation, b}^ plowing 

 it deeply and marking it with furrows four feet apart. 

 These furrows were made as deep as possible, but 

 after the loose soil had run back into them they were 

 on the bottom hardly six inches below the level of the 

 ground. In these furrows the roots of the seedlings 

 were planted (240 feet of row for each variety), 

 making altogether a patch of 35.25 square rods, or a 

 little more than one-fifth of an acre (.22 of an acre). 

 The plants were set about a foot apart in the row, and 

 covered only an inch or two above the crown, leaving 

 along the rows depressions some two inches deep, 

 which were gradually filled up during the summer, by 

 the many cultivations. During the winter the stalks 

 were cleared off, but nothing was done with the patch 

 in the spring more than to cut and note the earliest 

 shoots, the first cutting of which was made April 13th, 

 The patch was cultivated during summer as before, 

 except that the size of the plants interfered somewhat 

 — many of the plants growing six feet high and cor- 

 respondingly broad. During the fall the north half 

 of each variety was manured, at the rate of fifty loads 

 per acre, with strong barn-yard manure, and in the 

 spring the effedl was noted. 



* ' The following table gives results as shown by the 



