8o ASPARAGUS 



Then sow about 500 pounds of high grade potato 

 fertilizer per acre in the drill. As the weeds com- 

 mence to grow, cultivate and hoe, letting the soil cave 

 down in the drill. About the middle of the season 

 sow about 500 pounds more of fertilizer in the drill. 

 Continue to cultivate and hoe the remainder of the sea- 

 son. At the end of the season the drill should be 

 entirely filled up. The second 3'ear sow about 2,000 

 pounds of fertilizer per acre broadcast, plow the ground 

 and harrow it down level, and keep the ground clean. 

 The third year open the drill over the asparagus with 

 a one-horse plow, broadcast 2,000 pounds of fertilizer 

 per acre about the time the shoots begin to show, 

 and back-furrow it up with a plow over the drill to form 

 a ridge. Then smooth the ridge down with a home- 

 made implement resembling a snow-plow reversed. 

 Cut every morning all the shoots that show through 

 the ground. Do not cut more than four weeks ' in the 

 first cutting season. Continue to broadcast 2,000 

 pounds of fertilizer per acre every year. ' ' 



From what has been said in regard to the various 

 methods of applying fertilizers to asparagus, it will be 

 readily understood that it can make but little differ- 

 ence how it is distributed, whether on the rows, be- 

 tween the rows, or broadcast, so long as enough of it 

 is put on the land. In an established asparagus bed 

 the entire ground is a dense network of roots, and 

 wherever the fertilizer is put some of the roots will 

 find it, but not those of the plants over the crowns of 

 which it has been planted ; not more so than the feed- 

 ing roots of an apple tree can reach a heap of manure 

 piled around its trunk. 



