THE RAISING OF PLAxTS JI 



soon as the soil admits of workiing it should be well 

 pulverized and enriched with decomposed manure. On 

 a small scale a spading- fork is the besV- implement for 

 preparing soil for nurserj^ rows of asparh-^gus plants. 



Straight lines should be marked about fiVteen inches 

 apart and drills made about an inch deep when the 

 sowing is done very early in the season, and ot^ie-half 

 to one inch deeper when the sowing is done latter. 

 In these drills the seed should be dropped two or three 

 inches apart. The covering may be made with a hoe, 

 after which the soil should be well pressed down with 

 the foot. As the seed is slow to germinate — in from 

 four to six weeks, according to weather conditions 

 — it is well to sow with it a few radish seeds, which 

 will soon appear and mark the lines of the drills, so 

 that cultivation may begin at once. Soaking the seed 

 in luke-warm water for twenty-four hours before sow- 

 ing will hasten its germination. 



The cultivation of the young plants consists in 

 keeping the soil about them light, and free from grass 

 and weeds. Most of this work can be done with a gar- 

 den cultivator, or a hoe and rake or prong hoe, but 

 some hand weeding is generallj^ necessary in addition. 

 Stri(fl attention to this will save a year in time, for if 

 the seed-bed has been negledted, it will take two years 

 to get the plants as large as they should be in one 3'ear 

 if they had been properly cared for. In consequence 

 of this very frequent negledt of proper cultivation of 

 the seed-bed, it is a common impression that the plants 

 must be two years old before transplanting. One 

 pound of seed will produce about 10,000 plants, but as 

 many of these will have to be thinned out and poor 



