yo ASPARAGUS 



places for injurious insects and fungi. Some recom- 

 mend leaving the seedless plants as a mulch during 

 the winter, but the possible benefit of this is so insig- 

 nificant that it is not worth while to leave them for a 

 second cleaning in spring, when time is far more 

 valuable. 



RENOVATING OLD ASPARAGUS BEDS 



The principal causes of asparagus beds running out 

 are that in the first place ten plants are set out in a 

 space where only one could thrive ; then that the ground 

 is not rich enough and had no proper cultivation; and 

 last, but not least, that the cutting of the stalks has 

 been carried to excess. What to do with the old bed 

 is sometimes a perplexing question, especiallj- when a 

 place changes hands and the new proprietor has more 

 progressive ideas than the former one had. 



Let the old bed stay, and set out a new one accord- 

 ing to rational methods. Some years ago the writer 

 came into possession of an asparagus bed which was 

 known to be fort}' years old, and may have been much 

 older. It was a solid mass of roots without any dis- 

 tinguishable rows. The spears produced were so small 

 and tough that the first impulse was to dig up the 

 roots. But as this proved to be a more formidable 

 task than was anticipated, another plan was pursued. 

 In autumn the bed was thickly covered with fine yard 

 manure. The following spring the bed was marked 

 out into .strips of two feet in width. When the 

 sprouts appeared those in every alternate strip were 

 cut clean off during the entire summer, and the others 

 allowed to grow. In the autumn of the year another 



