Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-01

will not interfere with the convenient
working of the remainder of the land
appropriated to rotation of garden
crops How permanent it is when well
set and well cared for may be judged
by the statement made by gentleman
some years ago at meeting of the
Massachusetts board of agriculture,
that he had an asparagus bed which
Farm Notes. $500. ...... ..........2
was set by an English officer 125 years
ago, which was then vigorous, pro-
ducing as many and as large stocks as
the best beds in Concord
Like rhubarb, asparagus may be
weakened by allowing too long inter-
walls between the cuttings, and then
taking out too much at one time, or
by continuing to cut too late in the
season, yet as market gardeners are
obliged to manage they may find that
the better way. Even though a bed
may not last more than twenty-five or
thirty years before it gets root bound,
the stalks grow too small to sell read
lily, and it becomes necessary to set a
new bed.
Yet even twenty-five years is long
time in this rapid age, and the larger
gardeners find some compensation for
the cost of making a new bed, by TAX
ing the roots from the old bed as care
fully as possible without breaking,
just before freezing weather, and pack
ing them away in dry sand, where
they would be safe from freezing.
These roots are then taken to the hot
| house, packed closely together under
the benches, and about three inches of
loan covered over them, which is
then Watered with liquid manure. If
kept at a temperature of As to so de-
grees, it will be ready to cut in about
ten days, and may be cut for three or
four weeks, when they are thrown out
and a new bed made. In this way
they get asparagus to sell at very high
prices in the winter. 1t might be
done in a warm cellar, or a properly
made hotbed, if watered frequently,
as the changes in the temperature in
/ such a place would not be greater
than the ordinary changes it exper-
fences when growing out of doors in
! the spring.
! Asparagus likes a warm, deep soil,
/ not liable to be water-soaked at any
season, nor subject to drought, there
| fore it should not be a gravelly or
stony subsoil. Plow such soil at least
! eighteen inches deep by going several
times in the same furrow. with a
| strong team, and remove all the stones
even cas- large as a squirrels eye," as
I used to be told when picking stones
Put on good old manure at the rate of
eight or ten cords to the acre, and
pillow in not more than six or eight
inches deep, and the land is now good
enough to raise the plants from seed
or to set the plants in.
; The seed may however, be sown or
| land less thoroughly worked, sowing
in drills about a foot apart, early in
the spring. At a year old plants will
i. be large enough to transplant to the
: permanent bed. One pound of seed
+, is estimated to yield 5000 plants. and
J it requires about 100 plants to the
: square rod in setting a bed
} In setting make the burrows eight tC
: ten inches deep, and three to -four
5 feet apart, setting the plants from a
foot to eighteen inches apart in the
; row, leaving the crown on top of the
root eight inches below the surface
3 but covering only about two niche!
/ deep. AS it grows hoe down the ridges
: gradually, so that the land will be
} nearly level at the end of the summer
5 If the above directions are not explicit
: enough as to the distances apart I viii
say that authorities differ and I prefer
) close planting at one foot by three
apart to the greatest distance
The bed should not be cut the first
= year, and but slightly the second, but
the third year full crop may be taken
: ceasing to cut after the middle Of
) June unless the bed may chance to be
late one. AS earliness is an import
: ant factor in obtaining high prices, il
is desirable to have warm land, I'M
shaded, where one can begin cuttinq
by the middle of May, or earlier. in a
favorable season.-Selected