ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



Before making these mounds we must take away the old shoots 

 by detaching them gently from the stool. 



Third Year. — During the third year we proceed as during 

 the first, with the exception that if the plantation has pros- 

 pered we may gather our first crop, taking only two or three 

 heads, but not more, from the healthiest-looking stools. In 

 .the autumn the trenches are cleared in the same way as in 

 the first two years, and the mounds then are manured, as will 

 be described presently. The mounds are lowered as during 

 the first year, but we must only manure lightly. The weaker- 

 looking stools are marked with a stick, so that they should 

 not be earthed up in the coming spring, and so have nothing 

 gathered from them. As for those which are strong and 

 healthy we stick two or three old Asparagus heads into each 

 stool, taking one out for each young head that we gather, so 

 as to keep count of the crop. This is only done during the 

 first year. 



Fourth Year. — This year's operations coincide absolutely 

 with those of the second year, with the exception that we 

 may gather one crop during a period of three weeks, taking 

 care, however, not to try the weaker stools too much. The 

 trenches are manured during the winter, and when spring 

 .arrives we scatter over them a little soil, so that the stools 

 may be buried to a depth of about 5 in. For this operation 

 we must refer the reader to the Calendar of the Asparagus 

 Cultivator.* From this period the stool producing its roots 

 at the collar has a constant tendency to raise itself. It is for 

 this reason that, having cleared it of soil in the autumn and 

 earthed it up again in spring, in fifteen years the mounds will be 

 lowered entirely to the general level of the beds, as indicated 

 by the line h h h (fig. 5). In order to earth up the stools, 

 we are consequently obliged to take the soil away from the 

 mounds, which, so to speak, now become lower than the 



* See page 57. 



