The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-12-16
THE FARM AND HOME.
SOMETHING ABOUT AsPARA-
GUS CULTURE.
An Unapprectated Vegetable - Fresh
Pastures-To Avoid Bee Stings-
Barn Silos-Farm Notes
and Home Hints.
Asparagus Cul ture.

Asparagus IS a vegetable that is not
appreciated at it's full value by farm
ers for family use or for marke t. It's
medicinal qualities in quickening the
action of the kidneys and in cases of
dropsy and enlargement of the heart,
are undoubted, while as a table veqe-
table it is relished by nearly everyone
when properly cooked and served.
Again, as a market garden crop it is
usually as profitable as any that a
gardener can grow. Many are dis
couraged from attem pting it's cultiva-
ton by the fact that it usually re-
quires two or three years from the
setting of the plants before crop can
20 gathered. and from five to six years
before it comes to it's best results
Those who desire to sow the seed
ana grow their own plants can do SO,
upon any land that is good enough to
grow corn upon, as the object is not so
much to obtain large or rapid growing
piants' as to get good growth of
roots upon each one, for which reason
1t IS we'll to have the land not too rich,
and fertilized with well-rotted m anure
or good artificial fertilizer, as they
become well distributed through the
SOIL and tend to increase the number
of small, fibrous roots.
The ground should be we'll worked
over to furnish good seed bed and
the seed sown early in the spring in
rows about one foot apart. They
should be kept free from weeds, and
should have a dressing of fertilizers
the next spring if they are not to be
transplanted at one year old. We
should prefer to allow them to stand
until the following September or
October, when eighteen months old,
before transplanting to a permanent
bed.
If there is any foundation for the
statement made by some of the ex-
pertinent stations, that the female or
seed-bearing plants do not yield as
we'll as the male plants that bear no
seed, this would give an opportunity
for rejecting them, as in good soil all
such would show the seeds the second
year.
While this crop likes deep soil. it
should always be warm soil and we'll
drained, as earliness is desirable, for it
is market crop, and without thorough
drainage it will not attain the deep
roofing required for long standing in
the same bed. A southern slope is
also best for procuring early aspara gus,
which sells at the highest prices. The
land should be made rich for the crops
previously grown, but an addition of
well-rotted manure, bonedust, wood
ashes, Or commercial fertilizer rich
in potash, will greatly assist in getting
vigorous growth.
Before setting the plants, pillow the
ground at least eight inches Deep
making narrow burrows that the soil
may be well pulverized, and then open
drills four or five feet apart and at
least eight inches deep. The plan of
digging a trench two feet deep, and fill
ing it with coarse manure at least one
foot deep, isnot now followed, and but
few put any manure in the bottom of
the drill at setting the plants. The
drill being wide enough, by going
twice or more in it with the pillow, the
plants are set at eighteen inches or
two feet apart with the roots we'll
spread, and some take pains to round
up the bottom of the drill in the mid
die, or make a mound of earth for the
plant to rest upon that the roots may
incline downward, but we think this
is only within.
The crown of the root being thus
ILL IL
draw in earth enough to cover it few
inches deep if set in the spring, and
gradually fill up when hoeing in the
summer But for fall setting we
should bury deeper, and if the fur
rows were not filled level with soil,
should fill them with mulching of
some coarse material, to be raked off
in the spring again If it was straw
that had been used as bedding for the
cattle it would probably be just as
good for that purpose as any poorer
material, though forest leaves would
be very good. Tie space between the
rows must be kept free from weeds
until the plants are large enough to
shade the ground although some utilize
it for a crop of lettuce fall-sown
spinach, radishes, or other very early
crops.
There is a difference of opinion in
regard to the fall treatment. whether
to cut the stalks then and burn them,
or allow them to stand until spring as
protection to the ground from too
much freezing and thawing during the
winter. We incline to the latter plan,
but are open to conviction, says the
American Cultivator. In either case,
hoe or harrow over the ground four or
five inches deep as early as possible in
the spring, and continue to do so to
keep the weeds down until the stalks
appear If at the last hoeing a few
stalks are cut it will only delay it a
few days. Or perhaps but one day if
the weather is warm, as the stalks
grow very rapidly after they start.
When the stalks come, keep the space
between the rows clear of weeds by
hoeing or cultivating, and pull or use
the hand weeder on all those in the
row.
The fourth year from the seed there
may be few cuttings made. begin :
ming when the stalks are four or five
inches high, if for the market. For
home use only, cut whenever the stalk
can be taken hold of by the thumb