fit dOir.M 
1911- 
ASPARAGUS CULTURE FOR PROFIT. 
How to Plant and Manage the Crop. 
Asparagus will grow on a greater variety of 
soils than almost any other vegetable, but the best 
soil is a light loam with good bottom drainage, that 
has been well manured and cultivated two years or 
more in hoed crops, plowed six inches or more deep 
and subsoiled in the Fall previous to setting. In 
the Spring, as soon as the soil is in good working 
order, mark rows four feet six inches apart, 12 inches 
deep, by going twice or more times in row, and 
finally throwing out loose soil in bottom of furrow 
to level the same and get the roots in equal depth. 
Roots to be planted 18 inches apart in row. The 
most important point in setting an asparagus bed 
is to have .good large one-year roots, raised on good 
soil well manured and planted thin so they will be 
large and strong. By taking extra pains here one 
year’s time can be gained, as small ones will be at 
least one year behind in getting a crop, beside the 
extra expense of tending the smaller ones after they 
set in the field. To raise good roots sow on good 
soil manured heavily; thin in the row 16 inches 
apart, keep clean and spray with Paris 
green for the beetle if they appear, and 
with Bordeaux mixture for the rust. 
Another way to raise good roots is to 
sow quite thick one year ahead, dig them 
and separate when one year old, and 
transplant on a thin soil in shallow drills 
four to six inches apart, and they will 
make good plants to set the following 
year, having good fibrous roots, not 
long main roots, as they would be if 
they stood two years where they grew. 
In setting the drills are made enough 
for one day’s setting; better to set about 
as fast as they are made each day if 
possible, as they handle better while the 
soil is fresh. Mark distance apart with 
light wheelbarrow minus the rim on the 
wheel, leaving the spokes of proper 
length to mark whatever distance apart 
you wish to have them. I have found 
IS inches to be about right. Drop roots 
in the dots made by the rimless wheel, 
place them crowns up and cover with 
about two inches of soil, walking in 
trench on each side of them. After all 
are set, sow' 1,000 pounds good fer¬ 
tilizer and 500 pounds kainit in row, 
which need not be covered until they 
need working, by shaving the sides of 
the trenches; this should be done very 
light, just enough to clean sides and 
cover small weeds in bottom of rows. 
This is a very critical time until the 
second shoot appears; they will stand 
more each time they are worked. The 
ridges between trenches can be worked 
with one horse cultivator by putting 
frame around it with a board on each 
side eight inches wide, like a snow plow 
drawn wide end ahead, small end in rear, 
left open in rear about 18 inches. With 
a little practice in holding hard or light 
you can let in little or more soil as you 
wish, and work up lumps. By using this 
once a week or so, ridges can be kept 
clean, filling in the rows as needed. By 
July 15 rows should be nearly filled in, 
and one row of turnips or cabbage can 
be planted, making an ideal spot for 
either, and with me many times the crop of either 
has paid the cost of planting and caring for the bed 
the first year. 
Second year, after the soil gets warm in the Spring, 
take a furrow from each side of the row with light 
plow, and clean out the center as deep as you can 
without striking crowns. The bed may now be ma¬ 
nured in the row or broadcast with good fine manure. 
Let this lie until sprouts appear, and then work the 
soil in the row slowly. By so doing weeds will be 
kept down. Keep this up through the season, and 
very little hoeing will be needed. If the asparagus 
beetle appears spray with Paris green; if rust comes 
spray with Bordeaux mixture several times. 
Third year the bed should be handled very much 
the same as last year; plowed and opened and centers 
cleaned out, and when shoots begin to come up in 
the row plow furrow to both sides of row. Smooth 
the ridge with light drag or by raking, care being 
taken to leave some ridge over the row, as cutting 
the crop this year will begin. If the bed has been 
well tended it should yield 400 to 600 bunches; can 
be cut until June 20. After cutting is done plow off 
the ridge about the same as was done in the Spring, 
but not quite as deep. Here is another good time to 
aa>i Hov-v/an a astute si ht 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
apply manure, which may be coarse, putting in the 
center over the row, like some do in manuring for 
potatoes, letting it lie until the asparagus runs up 
and gets good and strong; then plow to each side 
just enough to cover manure. Cultivate between 
rows; now you have a good clean bed. If you have 
or can get a 16-inch disk cultivator with two gangs 
of three 16-inch disks to each gang run with one 
gang on each side of the row, which can be set at 
different angles, working on each side of the row 
and raising the ridge a little and covering weeds at 
the same time, giving the disk a little more cutting 
angle each time it is worked; by using disk often and 
keeping space between rows cultivated everything will 
he clean. This disk is a fine thing as the bed grows 
older to work and raise the ridges in after years. 
The older the bed gets the higher these ridges should 
be, as the crowns of the asparagus come nearer the 
surface every year. The work in after years in the 
Spring should be done very much the same except 
instead of using plow to work the rows in the Spring- 
use a riding cultivator, one working on both sides of 
row (with center attachment) that could be set light. 
The ridge need not be worked down level after the 
bed is six or seven years old, only softened, then 
worked up again with disk often as the season ad¬ 
vances. Keep space between rows cleaned out with 
wide-winged cultivator to make good walking; keep 
soil where disk will take it on row when needed. 
Follow this up through cutting season ; when cutting 
ends work the ridges down half; let it remain until 
crop grows strong as before, and work on your ridge 
again. Do this several times and the shade from the 
plants will keep down all weeds in row, and a few 
times with cultivator will finish the work for the 
season. After tops have ripened in Fall cut and burn 
and leave soil entirely alone to prevent washing. It 
has been my custom to manure every second year, 
alternating using 500 pounds nitrate of soda in Spring 
and 1,000 pounds kainit or 400 pounds muriate of pot¬ 
ash after cutting season is over. In fact, I like to apply 
all manure after cutting season is over, applying 
over the row and covering with soil, and it will keep 
soil lively and work better in Spring, never putting 
it on surface in Fall or Winter, as it keeps frost in 
late in Spring, and is very much in the way in the 
Spring. For market the crop should be packed in 
neat crates made 18x24, 10 inches high inside meas¬ 
ure, which will carry 24 bunches. One acre after it 
H S 
347 
is four years old should cut from 1,000 to 2,000 
bunches. geo. h. .hall. 
Long Island. 
STRUGGLE WITH AN EXPRESS COMPANY. 
I am most heartily in sympathy with your public 
spirited fight against the present pernicious practices 
of th« great express companies, and with much 
reason, because I am a long-suffering victim. As I 
have had occasion to learn, these giant monopolies 
are respecters of no man’s rights. They will haul 
and handle your goods as suits them; and charge 
what they please; or refuse to handle them at all, if 
valuable and you decline to release them from re¬ 
sponsibility. You are not even permitted to pur¬ 
chase a passenger ticket for such goods and take 
them on the train with you. The only recourse left 
is to hire a man to take them on his back or take them 
yourself. This is in no sense of the word an ex¬ 
aggerated statement. Quite the reverse if anything. 
I have been been for the past two years, and am 
likely to be for several more to come, involved in a 
lawsuit against the United States Express Company 
to recover damages for the entire destruction of a 
valuable oil painting through criminal 
negligence on the part of the company’s 
agents. 
In spite of the fact that the picture 
was packed in a pine box, made espe¬ 
cially for it by a paid expert, a man 
with over 30 years’ experience; in spite 
of the fact that I had agreed to (and 
did) pay the company an excess rate of 
20 cents a hundred on the valuation 
over the regular toll of 40 cents, the box 
received usage severe enough to break 
the double thick French picture glass in 
the shadow box during transit from 
Philadelphia to Perkasie, a distance of 
30 miles. With the very worthy object 
of exculpating themselves, the company’s 
employes in whose charge the box was 
at the time of breakage, removed the 
lid from my box, took out the broken 
glass (which had so cut, scraped and 
damaged the face of the canvas as com¬ 
pletely to ruin it), replacing the lid as 
it appeared originally. This charity act 
was not meant to prevent further dam¬ 
age to my picture, but to prevent me 
from discovering the damage when re¬ 
ceiving the box until I had receipted 
for it in good condition (a printed form 
of the company’s that must be signed 
before you may even look at your goods, 
a fact testified to by one of the com¬ 
pany’s own men), and was well away 
from the express office. These same 
over-zealous employes, however, neglect¬ 
ed to tighten a few screws that had 
held the frame of the painting in place 
in the box, which the jar causing the 
breakage had loosened. By this over¬ 
sight I was enabled to detect my loss 
at the express office, and call the agent's 
attention to it. 
“Well, that’s some more of the com¬ 
pany’s work,” was this man’s verbatim 
remark, showing that the occurrence 
was not unusual to him. Communica¬ 
tion with the company failed to elicit a 
response. In fact, several letters writ¬ 
ten by me were entirely ignored. Final 
employment of counsel resulted in a 
trial at court two years afterward, or, to be explicit, 
in November of 1910. My witnesses’ testimony 
clearly proved negligence on the part of the com¬ 
pany, and the jury, in a few moments, awarded me a 
verdict of $3,000 (the amount of valuation for which 
I paid at the rate of 20 cents per hundred, as before 
mentioned) and interest, notwithstanding the ag¬ 
gressive and bulldozing methods employed, during 
the trial, by counsel for the company, directed against 
my witnesses and myself, not to mention innuendo and 
downright insult directed against me personally until 
reprimand by the court brought relief. 
A case between private individuals considering the 
evidence adduced would have ended then and there. 
But not so a monopoly. Through a legal technicality, 
and by the use of legal legerdemain, an appeal was 
demanded, and granted, and the end is not yet. 
There will be a retrial, there may be a Supreme 
Court trial afterward, although I have an attorney 
who is independent and who demonstrated his ability 
in his fight with the Philadelphia Traction Company. 
He will eventually win my case. But in time, trou¬ 
ble and expense, together with the indignities one 
must submit to, is a powerful discouragement to be 
taken into consideration by all contemplating an at¬ 
tempt for redress from these monopolies. 
Bucks Co., Pa. F. D. W. BOLAND. 
PLANTING STRAWBERRIES IN ARKANSAS Fig, 117. 
DIGGING STRAWBERRY PLANTS IN ARKANSAS Fig. 118. 
