Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1878 — Asparagus Raising. [ARTICLE]

Asparagus Raising.

Some of the following hints, gathered from a variety of treatises, may prove interesting or useful: (rood, choice seed should be selected in sowing, either for the purpose of obtaining roots or for stocking a bed where it is sown. Seed stocking has the advantage that by this process there is no check through removal, and no chance of mutilating the roots. In stocking a bed with roots, crowns should be chosen of one year’s growth, ordwo years’ at the outside, and care should be taken that they are not exposed: too long to the air in transplanting. They should not be placed too close to one another, as is frequently the case. The roots should be planted when they have sprouted about one inch, and not before they are in a state of activity, as. in the latter case, they frequently rot from lying in the earth. The roots should not be planted too deep, as the increased effort togain the surface is an additional tax on the strength of the plant and the tender heads become frayed. The longdrumsticks of French and English white asparagus are not produced by planting the roots deep, but by earthing to the height of several inches when the sprouts are shooting. The system of manuring should be judicious and generous. The application of alternate dressings of salt and manure is perhaps the best method to pursue. It is not necessary to apply a heavy coat of manure before the winter, nor even to cover up the beds or fill in the alleys with leaves, as the asparagus is a hardy plant, but a good dressing should be given to the beds in the spring before the crop commences. Salt should be applied at the rate of two pounds to the square yard. Seaweed is an excellent manure for asparagus, and should be applied whenever obtainable. alley s should not be overplanted with other vegetables/ and only with those kinds whose roots do h»t extend deep beneath the, surface. The plants should be carefully watered during the summer months, especially if the season be dry, and the beds may with advantage be covered with the short grass swept up from the lawn. It should be remembered that few plants arc so easily damaged by wind, and that the stools suffer when the stalks are broken. No bed smaller than one rod, or 272 square, should be appropriated v to the growth of asparagus, sw that is the minimum extent of ground calculated to produce a fair-sized dish, all the heads of which are cut the same day. Finally, in cutting the shoots, an asparagus knife should always be used, as if cut with a

serrated edge the wound i* ragged and does not bleed nearly so much, whereas a clean .wound leaves the sap vessels open, "tare should be taken to pass the knife closely down the stem of the sprout, so as not to injure any heads which have not yet made their appearance above ground, and great precaution is necessary to avoid pricking the crown. Much misapprehension prevails as to leaving heads uncut in the beds. The best plan is to cut all, when the beds are in strong bearing, nntil the beginning (if Juno. The smaller sprouts need not appear at table as a vegetable to do discredit to the gardener; they should be reserved for soup or omelets. Like the potato and the vine, the asparagus has its sworn foes. The chief enemy of growers is the aspara-, gus beetle (Crocuris asparaqi), which is, however, fortunately, very intermittent and local. The larva state of the insect lasts only about ten days, during which it selects the young shoots as its food, and then buries itself in the ground. They may be captured by passing the hand down the stalk-. The French grow it in sunk trenches instead of in raised beds. The roots intended to produce the giant heads are planted very wide apart, and the plants are assiduously watered in the summer after the crop has ceased. This is the time of year wnen asparagus requires much nourishment, and this essential point is too frequently neglected. The plants are carefully stalked, to prevent the stems and branches being broken by the wind, and all decayed or delicate plants arc carefully replaced by those of a strong and vigorous growth. The earth is every year cautiously removed to the roots, and rotten manure is spread over them before they are covered up again; but as a rule the French do not muck so heavily as the English growers. The largest and earliest seeds are chosen to propagate from, and the roots are always transplanted as yearlings and carefully preserved from the air during removal. The long, blanched stems, on which the French growers pride themselves so much, are produced by-a system of earthing, and the sprout is only allowed to push one inch above the accumulated soil before cutting. In the growth of the giant asparagus much attention is devoted to each individual sprout. An opaque tube is placed over the bud, and the shoot is then allowed to rise higher above the surface than is the case with the ordinary crop, as by the exclusion of air, and especially light, the much prized blanching is secured, Whereas if clear glass tubes were used the shoot would he hastened forward, but would assume that greenness which the French think so undesirable. — N. Y. Herald.