ed in the spring
as early as possible. Concord growers use animal manure or chemical
fertilizers, as the case may be or as the bed may require. The bed
should be smooth harrowed just before the new shoots appear, and good
clean cultivation given during the season. After harrowing or plowing in
the third year, sow your chemicals or fertilizer broadcast and harrow
in. A good formula for asparagus is: Nitrate of soda, 300 to 400 pounds;
muriate of potash, 400 pounds; and fine ground bone, 600 pounds per
acre. The shoots will appear about May 5th, and should be cut for about
two weeks; then let them grow up and cultivate well during the season.

Home-mixing of fertilizer is practiced by some of the growers in this
vicinity, as it is cheaper and better. Any intelligent farmer can, with
a little study, purchase and mix the raw materials to advantage. Not so
much fertilizer is used as formerly by our growers, who are beginning to
think that we use more plant food than the crop needs, thus throwing
away many dollars each year. The cost of an acre of asparagus when
properly planted and manured is about two hundred dollars, varying with
the cost of help, manure, etc. The average product of asparagus beds is
about two hundred and eighty-eight dozen bunches per acre--probably less
since the rust appeared in 1897.

Asparagus is grown largely on Cape Cod. There the roots are planted in
rows six feet apart and four or five feet in the row. Seaweed is used
largely in connection with fertilizer and manure. Various grains, oats,
rye, etc., are sometimes sown to prevent the soil being blown away. The
method of culture is much the same as elsewhere.

At Concord the asparagus season opens usually about May 5th. The shoots
are cut two or three inches under ground and should be about eight
inches in length. These are laid in handfuls on the ground by the
cutter, each one cutting two rows. The product of four rows is laid in
one row, making what is called a "basket row." These "basket rows" are
gathered in baskets, boxes, or wheelbarrows, and taken to the
packing-shed. The asparagus is placed on a table and packed in racks of
uniform size, passed to the person who ties, and then to be butted off.
The bunches are then washed and set up in troughs ready for market.
Water is added in season to swell the bunch tight and it is then packed
in bushel boxes for market, going in by teams each night.

Asparagus was free from pests until 1889, when th