42 ABPAUAGUS. 



Annual dressings of common salt will improve 

 the quality and increase the size of Asparagus. There 

 need be no apprehension of danger from the applica- 

 tion of salt. I have frequently put on as much as 

 two inches in thickness on different parts of an 

 Asparagus-bed, and the young plants have come 

 through this coating of salt without any apparent 

 injury. A dressing of twenty-five or thirty bushels 

 of salt to the acre, every second year, will be quite 

 enough, in connection with the annual covering of 

 barn-yard manure or compost to be applied in the 

 Fall or Spring, as circumstances may dictate. 



No Asparagus should be cut from the bed the 

 . first or second year. Some growers go so far as not 

 to cut any until the fourth year from the time of 

 planting. If the plants have grown vigorously, a 

 crop may be cut without at all injuring the planta- 

 tion the third year. The amount that may safely be 

 taken off at this time depends altogether on the con- 

 dition and vigor of the plants. In case they are 

 weak, it would be poor policy to weaken them still 

 more by cutting for market or home consumption too 

 soon. 



In the Fall of the first year it is a good plan to 

 throw shallow furrows from either side towards the 

 rows, and then round them off with a hoe or rake. 

 This slightly-elevated ridge will dry out sooner in 

 the Spring than a flat surface ; and Asparagus, treat- 

 ed in this way, will often make a difference in earli- 

 ness of five or six days, which is an important item 

 to those who grow it for market. 



Early Asparagus always brings a much highei 



