1 Mar., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 161 
Now to prepare the beds. If you are situated in a dry district, proceed 
thus: Mark your beds to be just 4 feet wide. This allows space for three 
parallel rows of plants, the shoots of which can be gathered from both sides of 
the bed without treading the ground. Leave spaces, also 4 feet wide, empty 
between the beds. Now, on those rather wide footpaths, shovel back about 
8 inches of soil taken from the beds. When working on a large scale, that 
earth can be thrown back by means of a wooden triangle drawn by a horse. 
Now fork again, and mix well with manure the land left in your beds, which is 
now a good deal lower than the surrounding land. Draw your lines, one in the 
middle of the bed and one on each side, 12 inches apart. On every place which 
is to receive a crown (a plant) put a shovelful of your best earth, forming 
thus a small hill. On every hill put the above-described inverted funnel-like 
crown, spreading well the fingers in every direction, and cover with some earth.* 
When the whole bed is finished, shgvel back 8 or 4. inches of soil, and the work is 
is done. This transplanting is usually done in autumn and winter, say trom May 
to August. When treated thus, the crowns usually begin to produce the second 
spring, say about fifteen months after transplanting. Now, during the whole life 
of the plants—from fifteen to twenty years—the work will consist simply in keeping 
the land clean from weeds and well pulverised by means of forks or some of 
the Planet Junior implements; and once a year, say in winter after the stems 
are cut off, take 2 or 8 inches of soil from the spaces between the beds and 
shovel it back on the beds with a good dressing of half-rotted manure. 
If you are in a wet district or if you work with a rather stiff soil, the work 
will be the same in every detail except that the beds should on no account be 
lower than the surrounding land. They should start 2 or 3 inches higher, and: 
be gradually raised every year. 
To be successful, the transplanting should be done with great care, and the 
roots (crowns) should on no account be exposed to the rays of the sun. It 
should therefore be done either on an overcast, drizzling day or towards the 
evening. Great care should be taken not to break any part of the crown and 
fingers, either in lifting the plant or in setting it in its permanent place. 
When the asparagus is grown on a large scale, the seeds are usually sown 
directly into the permanent beds prepared in the same way as above described. 
Tn that manner there is less labour involved, but the land is occupied for two 
years longer without any return. It is for everyone to reckon what will pay 
him best. 
The harvesting consists in cutting off with a sharp knife—there are very 
handy knives for the purpose, slightly bent at the end—close to the crown 
from which they start, the young shoots (turiones), taking care never to allow 
them to grow more than 2 inches out of the soil, or they will become stringy and 
green. In that way the shoots are even, all being about 5 incheslong. If that 
ork is done carelessly, a great many young shoots will be injured, cut, or 
pruised, thus diminishing the crop. But with a little practice one acquires 
easily the required “knack.’’? Those shoots are then sorted and tied in bundles 
ready for the market. When asparagus are large, they usually run from 70 
to 80 to the bundle. Of the smaller ones there ought to be at least 100 in 
each bundle. , 
When the plant has given off nearly all its shoots it is of absolute necessity 
to allow three or four of them to develop into stems, flowers, and fruit. But 
they should be cut off and removed before the berries begin to shed their seeds; 
otherwise these will start growing in the beds like weeds, and seriously interfere 
with subsequent work. 
The above-described methods have been found everywhere the most profit- 
, 
able and most congenial to the habit of growth of the plant. They insure 
also a first quality of products for which there is always a demand at remuner- 
ative prices. Still, it is possible to obtain half-crops of inferior shoots by 
* Were the crowns put on flat soil, the weight of the earth on them would cause the fingers to 
break, thus spoiling the plant altogether. 
