22 



THE BOOK OF ASPARAGUS 



are placed in position, a good sprinkling of manure 

 should be put in the drills. Some growers advocate 

 about six hundredweight of guano to the acre ; 

 others would mix equal parts of bone-meal, kainit, 

 and superphosphate, quite two months before re- 

 quired, occasionally mixing and well turning, using 

 about ten hundredweight to the acre. I know some 

 people who are able to give such minutely definite 

 instruction as to the application of manures that novices 

 think their advice unquestionable, but after many years' 

 experience of cultural experiments I must confess that 

 I have not yet arrived at this infallible stage. Soils, 

 previous cultures, and other causes upset calculations, and 

 I am inclined to think that unless a chemical analysis of the 

 soils be made no very definite instruction as to quantities 

 of nitrogen, phosphates, potash, or lime can be given. 



The planting having been finished, the drills finished 

 off with a rake, the principal work throughout the summer 

 will consist in strenuously keeping all weeds under, for 

 these will grow freely, and, as the land has been well man- 

 ured with dung and a good supply of artificials, stronger 

 weeds will be in evidence than where the land is poor. 

 Neglect will cause the plants to be heavily handicapped 

 at this stage, for the roots are but just starting afresh 

 after removal, and will not be benefitted by running a 

 race with vigorous weeds for food. When the time 

 comes to cut the plants down in the autumn no weeds 

 should be found, yet I have seen nettles and almost 

 every other kind of weed at this time of year developed 

 into abnormal specimens, robust, and of gigantic growth. 

 Nothing can show less common sense than having gone 

 through all the work, and to all the expense of preparing 

 the ground and planting the roots, to finish the season 

 with a large crop of weeds. It is customary in the 

 autumn to apply a large quantity of the best dung avail- 

 able, to dig it in and to throw earth over the whole, thus 



