Selection, oft Asparagus, Plants 
Insuring a Good Plantation 
A X lill’ORTAXT CROP—Aspara- 
.aus is one of our important truck 
crops both for market and canning pur- 
pf)scs. T’ecause it is the earliest vege¬ 
table in Spring, a few plants should be 
included in every permanent home 
garden. Rveryone who has sfHui asnar- 
a'Uis plants during the cutting season 
has noticed th.at some shoots are large, 
l)lumi>. straight and smooth-grained, 
and these are very tender and of the 
best (piality when cooked. IMany other 
shoots iire sm.all, crooked, twisted or 
distorted in various ways, and these 
are usually tough aTul stringy when 
cookwl. The fine straight shoots are 
]>roduced from certain plants, while the 
crooked Inferior sprouts come almost 
entirely from certain other plants. Of 
course the plants which produce only 
.small or crooked sprouts are not 
wanted because of the poor quality of 
their iiroducf, Rut it takes several 
years and considerable labor to bring 
asp.-iragus plants up to the bearing age, 
so how are these undesirable plants to 
be eliminated, i^ince the young crowns 
look very much alike at the time they 
are set in the permanent bed? 
SRldlCTIXO Ft)U ()ThVI,ITY.—The 
A.Iis-ouri Experiment Station has been 
making experiments and observations 
for many years to find some way of 
s(dving this proiilem. The asparagus 
seedlings vary more than those of any 
other crop, and it has been found that 
by following certain methods of selec¬ 
tion, plants can be obtained which will 
Good Aaitunii/ut! Crown for Getting in Permanent Bed. Fig. 381. 
produce only straight tender shoots of 
large size and good quality. Plants 
have been developed which produce 
shoots aver.aging over an inch in diam¬ 
eter, or twice the size of the usual mar¬ 
ket grades. 
THE SEED PARENT.—The first 
step is to select a desir.able parent 
plant from which to take seed. The 
asparagus plantation should be closely 
watched during the cutting .season, and 
those which produce the largest shoots, 
which are straight and of good qualit.v, 
should be marked so that the nature 
of the plant’s growth can be ob.served 
later iii the se.ason. Part of the plants 
of this first selection may prove to be 
male plants, and .so are dropped out of 
consideration as seed-producers. Among 
the female or berry-producing plants, 
one or two should be selecte<l which 
have erect stalks and straight stout 
stems, with no side branches near the 
ground. The foliage should be he.avy 
and green, and free from the asparagus 
rust, which causes a browning of the 
leaves and stalks during the latter part 
of the season, weakening the plants so 
that a poor crop of shoots results the 
following year. The seed-berries .should 
be allowed to redden and become fully 
ripe before harvesting; then they 
should be gathered, mashed to a pulp, 
and the small black seed separatetl oiR 
by agitating the mass in water, so tlnit 
the macerated pulp floats away, leav¬ 
ing the small black seeds at the bottom 
of the vessel. These should be dried 
and stored for planting the following 
.‘SMi’ing. 
THE NT’RSERY ROW.—The next 
I 
Asparagus Bhoots; Inferior at Left; Good at Right. Fig. 382. 
