ting, cleaning, and preserving the seed is, of course, to be done
carefully; the separation of the heavy and the light seeds can be
accomplished by means of water, while the larger can be selected from
the resultant mass by the use of a properly meshed sieve.

V

THE RAISING OF PLANTS

Asparagus can be propagated by division of the roots, but this method
gives so unsatisfactory results that it is rarely practiced. Raising the
plants from seed is therefore the only method worth considering. The
seed may be sown either in the fall or spring. But far more important
than the time for sowing is the quality of the seed. While asparagus
seed retains its vitality for two or more years, it is not safe to use
seed older than one year. Fresh seed may be recognized by its glossy
black color and uniform smooth surface, while old seed has a smutty gray
color and its surface is generally rough and wrinkled. Yet even with
this as a guide it is not easy to distinguish bad from good seed, and
still more difficult, if not impossible, is it to distinguish the seed
of different varieties. It is therefore advisable to procure seed only
from dealers of undoubted reliability and pay a fair price for it rather
than to accept poor seed as a gift. A uniformity of the individual
plants in the asparagus bed or field is a matter of prime importance;
only large, fully developed seeds should be used, screening out and
rejecting all small and inferior ones.

In northern latitudes spring sowing is preferable to fall sowing. The
ground of the seed-bed should be well drained and fairly retentive of
moisture. As soon as the soil admits of working it should be well
pulverized and enriched with decomposed manure. On a small scale a
spading-fork is the best implement for preparing soil for nursery rows
of asparagus plants.

Straight lines should be marked about fifteen inches apart and drills
made about an inch deep when the sowing is done very early in the
season, and one-half to one inch deeper when the sowing is done later.
In these drills the seed should be dropped two or three inches apart.
The covering may be made with a hoe, after which the soil should be well
pressed down with the foot. As the seed is slow to germinate--in from
four to six weeks, according to weather conditions--it is well to sow
with it a few radish seeds, which will soon appear and mark the lines of
the drills, so that cultivation may begin at once. Soaking the seed in