al shade?

Mr. Record: Well, I wouldn't want too much. I have shade on both sides
of mine; it is a hedge. I notice it isn't near so good next to the hedge
as it is out in the middle of the bed, although shade on both sides
protects it from the wind and makes it hotter. The hotter it is, the
faster it will grow.

Mr. Crawford: I asked the question because I have a west line shade
several years old, trees are willow and box elder. Considerable of the
ground is a loss to me, practically so, from that shade.

Mr. Record: I don't think it is a very good place for asparagus.

A Member: I would like to ask if a person on clay soil could use sawdust
to work in?

Mr. Record: Horse manure with sawdust, we use a great deal of that, that
is, planing mill shavings. That is all right. That will loosen up the
ground some, but when it is turned over, of course, it will harden up
again if there comes a good hard rain on it.

A Member: How many years have you maintained a bed?

Mr. Record: Why, it will go from twelve to fourteen years, although the
place that I am on now, I know that was good for twenty-five or
twenty-six. It is practically gone now, but for twenty years it was
good. But of late years it won't run over twelve to fifteen.

Mr. Willard: I would like to ask something about changing an old
asparagus bed to a new position.

Mr. Record: I wouldn't advise you to use the old roots. You get a bed
quicker by using plants that are two years old, and of course there are
some plants better than others. I bought my plants in the east. Now they
have good plants here, a good many of them, too, but I have never seen
anything as good as I got for my last bed. The best way if I was going
into it, being a market gardener, would be to go to some neighbor that
had a good straight bed and get my own seed. It is very easy to save,
and most anyone would give a man all he wanted and charge him nothing.
All he would do would be to gather it up.

Mr. Miller: I would like to ask--I only grow for kitchen garden and I
presume most of us are in the same boat--we were told to plow a furrow
deeply and fill it with good manure and to plant the roots with the
crowns about four inches below the surface of the bed.

Mr Record: Well, I wouldn't fertilize it first. I would, as I say, plow
my furrow and loosen up the bottom of it, so that the plants will get a
chance to get started. You know if you are plowing it out or shoveling
it out it will get