e asparagus beetle made
its unwelcome appearance. Methods of fighting the beetle were unknown to
growers generally at that time, but necessity soon taught us. Chickens
and hens are used with good results, also Paris green dry was applied
with an air-gun when the dew was on the foliage. Cutworms sometimes do
the asparagus crop severe damage, but chickens and hens are a sure
remedy--in fact, hens are a decided benefit in an asparagus field,
keeping down many weeds.

After learning to control the asparagus beetle we were visited by the
rust, which has proved a stubborn foe and absorbs the sap which ought to
go to the growing plant. Appearing in July, 1897, the rust seriously
damaged many beds in eastern Massachusetts. Many remedies have been
suggested, but so far none of them have proved perfectly satisfactory.
Growers have been advised to cut the infected tops as soon as the rust
appears, but such a practice is all wrong, however good in theory. Do
not cut the tops until the sap has left the stalks. This is the advice
of a large number of asparagus growers and scientific men who are
engaged in experimental work.

CHARLES W. PRESCOTT.

_Middlesex County, Mass._

ASPARAGUS ON LONG ISLAND

The cultivation of asparagus on Long Island does not differ materially,
in most respects, from that practiced in other localities, other than in
its extent. But there is probably more to be learned about its
cultivation there than in any other section of the country, from the
fact of its being grown under such changed conditions of soil. Here it
can be shown that the character of soil is not, of itself, of great
importance, and that on soil usually considered worthless--on land that
can be bought, uncleared, at from five to ten dollars per
acre--asparagus can be made as profitable a crop as on land considered
cheap at one hundred dollars per acre.

Nearly every farm, the northern boundary of which is the Long Island
Sound, has from two to twenty acres of soil composed very largely of
fine drift sand, in all respects like quick-sand in character. This,
when mixed with light loam, as is frequently the case, is the most
favorable land for asparagus, and in such it is largely grown, being
unsuited to potatoes or cereals, and where grasses make but a feeble
struggle for existence. Within five minutes' walk to the south the soil
is from a lively to a quite heavy loam, in which corn, potatoes,
cabbage, cauliflower, and, in fact, all oth