THE RAISING OF PLANTS 33 



and stir the ground so as to destroy the embr5'o 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 intervals of two or three 

 weeks during the summer, as the success of this plan 

 is entirely dependent on keeping down the weeds, 

 which, if allowed to grow, would soon smother the 

 asparagus plants, that, for the first season of their 

 growth, are weaker than most weeds. In two or three 

 months after starting, the asparagus will have at- 

 tained ten or twelve inches in hight, and 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 in hight and, if the diredlions for culture 

 have been faithfully followed, strong and vigorous. 



"When the stems die down (but not before) cut 

 them off close to the ground, and cover the lines for 

 five or six inches on each side with two or three inches 

 of rough manure. The following spring renew culti- 

 vation, and keep down the weeds the second year ex- 

 adlly as was done during the first, and so on to the 

 spring of the fourth year, when a crop will be produced 

 that will well reward all the labor that has been 

 expended. Sometimes, if the land is particular!}' suit- 

 able, a marketable crop may be secured the third year, 

 but as a rule it will be better to wait until the fourth 

 year before cutting much, as this would weaken the 

 plants. To compensate for the loss of a year's time 

 in thus growing asparagus from seed, cabbage, lettuce, 

 onions, beets, spinach or similar crops that will be 

 marketable before the asparagus has grown high 

 enough to interfere with them, may be planted be- 



