CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 57 



Set the plants twenty inches apart in the furrow, and 

 by means of hand-rakes pull in enough earth to barely 

 cover the crowns. 



As growth begins, the soil is to be gradually 

 worked in around the advancing shoots till the soil is 

 level. Now give a dressing of 1,000 pounds per acre, 

 alongside the rows, of a mixture of 900 pounds of acid 

 phosphate, 500 pounds of fish scrap, 200 pounds of 

 nitrate of soda, and 400 pounds of muriate of potash, 

 and keep the plants cultivated shallowh' and flat with 

 an ordinary cultivator till the tops are mature. An 

 application of salt may be useful if applied in the fall 

 in making some matters in the soil available, but salt 

 in itself is of no use whatever to the plants. We 

 would never apply salt in the spring, as it has a ten- 

 dency to lessen nitrification and to retard the earliness 

 of the shoots. 



The annual dressing of the fertilizer named should 

 now be increased to a ton per acre, and it should 

 be applied not later than February ist in each 

 5'ear. After the tops have been cut in the fall it is a 

 good plan to plow furrows from each side over the 

 rows and to plow out the middles, for the shoots will 

 alwa3-s start earlier in an elevated ridge, which warms 

 up earlier in the spring. 



The second j-ear after planting cutting maj^ begin, 

 and the shoots must be cut as fast as they show, care 

 being taken to cut down near the crown of the roots, 

 but not to injure the other shoots that ma}' be start- 

 ing. After cutting is over — and the length of time the 

 bed should be cut is of little importance in the South, 

 for the price at the point where it is shipped will 



