the blanched ones. None but new, light crates should be used, for a
clean and neat package will always favor its contents in the selling.

W. F. MASSEY.

_North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station._

ASPARAGUS CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA

The growing of asparagus for market in California is proving to be one
of the most successful of its minor industries. There is a large area in
the State which is exactly suited to the production of this vegetable.
This is the region of sedimentary deposits, washed by waters that are
to some extent brackish, or naturally saline. Commercial asparagus
farming is limited to the reclaimed lands around the bay of San
Francisco, the marshy deltas of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers,
and the so-called peat lands of Orange and San Luis Obispo counties.
Small beds, however, for local consumption are to be found in California
as generally and frequently as they are in other States.

There is a fascination about asparagus culture that is founded on
legitimate financial returns. It is practically "a sure thing" when once
established, and the conditions of climate and soil are such that the
work attendant on production is a minimum in proportion to the return.
No diseases of the plant have yet shown themselves in California, and it
is seldom that the weather is unsteady enough to be a factor in limiting
production. The deterring feature is the fact that it is not till the
third year that a return can be expected on the investment. But as other
crops, such as potatoes and beans, can be grown between the rows in the
interim, the time of waiting is not so entirely an unproductive one as
might at first be supposed.

The methods of preparing, planting, and working are practically the same
in all sections of California. The proposed beds are plowed as deeply as
possible and thoroughly fertilized. All of the soils appropriate for
commercial asparagus farming are so light that deep cultivation is a
comparatively easy matter. Furrows for planting are then run and made
double depth. Some growers think it worth while to distribute
fertilizer along these furrows and then turn for a third time, so as to
enrich the ground immediately below the roots to be set out. These
furrows are run from four to six feet apart, the latter being considered
the better usage. In them one-year-old plants are then set by hand at
distances varying from eighteen inches to three feet. The former
distance is preferred by