Asparagus, its culture for home use and for market / A practical treatise on the planting, cultivation, harvesting, marketing, and preserving of asparagus, with notes on its history

After the ground has been properly prepared, it is marked off in parallel rows from three to five or more feet apart, according to the preferences of the grower. The easiest way to open these trenches is by plowing a furrow each way, and, if necessary, going over the ground a sufficient number of times to make the furrows from eight to ten inches deep. After this the loose soil is thrown out with a shovel or a wide hoe, so as to leave the trenches at a uniform depth of ten to twelve inches and of the same width at the bottom, as seen in Fig. 15. By rigging a piece of board on the mold-board of the plow more soil is thrown out, so that usually it will not be necessary to go over the ground oftener than twice. The Messrs. Hudson & Son, of Long Island, have devised for their own use a "trencher" (Fig. 16), which with a good team opens the trench to the desired depth in one operation and at a great saving of labor.

If the entire ground has been heavily fertilized, plowing manure in the trenches will not be necessary, yet many experienced asparagus growers think that it pays to scatter some fertilizing material into the trenches before planting. A favorite plan with Long Island growers is to mix half a ton of ground bone, or fish scrap, with one hundred pounds of nitrate of soda per acre, and thoroughly incorporate this mixture with the soil to a depth of three inches before setting the plants. Others prefer thoroughly decomposed manure spread over the bottom of the furrow, to a depth of about three inches, before setting the plants. Others prefer thoroughly decomposed manure spread over the bottom of the furrow, to a depth of about three inches, and covering it with two inches of fine soil. If the roots are to be planted four or more feet apart it will be sufficient to throw a shovelful of manure where the roots are to be placed. This is then spread out so as to make a layer of about three inches, which is then covered with soil.

PLACING THE ROOTS

The proper planting of the roots is the most critical point in asparagus culture, as upon the manner in which this is performed—more than upon other detail—depends the success, yield, duration, and profit of the plantation. Almost any other neglect can be remedied by after-treatment, but careless and faulty planting, never. Whatever care and personal attention the grower may give to this work will be repaid manyfold in future returns.

As stated before, only strong, healthy one-year-old plants with three or four strong buds should be used, so as to insure an even growth over the entire field, and at every stage of the work great care must be taken not to expose the roots to the drying influences of sun and winds. When everything is in readiness for planting, the roots are placed in the trench, the crown in the center and the rootlets spread out evenly and horizontally, like the spokes of a wheel, and at once covered with three inches of fine, mellow soil, which is pressed around them. If the ground is dry at planting-time it should be pressed down quite firmly about the roots, so as to prevent their drying out, and to hasten their growth.

To still more insure success it is an excellent plan to draw up little hills of soil in the bottom of the trench over which to place the roots with the crowns resting on the top, thus raising the crowns a few inches above the extremities of the roots and providing for them a position similar to what they stood in before transplanting, as seen in Fig. 17.

The subsequent covering of the roots can usually be done with a one-horse plow, from which the mold-board has been removed, passing down the sides of the row. This leaves the plants in a depression, the soil thrown out in opening the rows forming a ridge on each side, as shown in Fig. 18. This depression will gradually become filled during the process of cultivation the succeeding summer.

IX

The cultural work in the asparagus bed during the first year consists in loosening the soil at frequent intervals, and especially as soon after rain as the ground becomes dry enough for cultivation. Frequent and thorough cultivation is necessary not only to keep down the weeds, but also to prevent the formation of a crust on the soil after rain, and to provide a mulch of loose earth for the retention of moisture. In field culture the work is best done with a one-horse cultivator or a wheel-hoe, and on a small scale with a scuffle-hoe and a rake. As the sprouts grow up small quantities of fine soil should be drawn into the trenches from time to time, but during the early part of the season great care must be exercised not to cover the crowns too deeply.

Some growers advise to work the soil away instead of toward the plants, considering the four inches of soil with which the roots are covered at planting sufficient for the first year. While this may be true in a wet or moderately moist summer, in a season of drouth the additional mulch of mellow soil can not but be beneficial to the young and tender plants. Especial care is required when working around the young sprouts, so as not to cover, break, or in any way injure any of them.

In the garden bed it pays to stake the canes when they are but a foot high, so as to prevent the wind from disturbing the stools in the soil by swaying the shoots backward and forward. Careful gardeners insert stakes for this purpose at the time of planting, before the roots are covered with soil, so as to guard against the danger of injuring any of them. The best material for this tying is raffia, or Cuban bast. In field culture staking is usually not practicable, partly on account of the cost, and also because where there are many plants growing close together they furnish some mutual protection to one another. The same end may also be accomplished—partly, at least—by throwing up a furrow on each side of the rows of plants. Precautions of this kind are important in localities exposed to high winds, as their neglect may often cause greater loss than it would have cost to provide proper protection.

Another important work in the asparagus bed during the first year is to keep close and constant watch over the asparagus beetle, and at its first appearance to apply the remedies recommended in the chapter on injurious insects. Plants deprived of their foliage at this early stage of their life have but a poor chance to recover from the loss.

If it is found that some of the plants have not started by the middle of June, it is best to replace them with growing plants of the same age, which should have been kept in a reserve bed for this purpose. If this replanting is done carefully, so as not to mutilate any of the roots, and on a cloudy day, it is best not to cut back the tops very severely. Unless a copious rain sets in soon after planting, the roots have to be heavily watered, after which they will keep on growing at once without suffering any setback.

The formerly all but universal practice was to cover the roots with manure after the stalks had been removed in the fall for fear of frost injuring or killing the roots. In sections where winters are very severe this may still be desirable, as may be seen from the statement of so keen an observer as Professor J. C. Whitten, of the Missouri Experiment Station: "Most writers advise applying dressing of old fine manure during the growing season when the plants can use it. In our soil better results are obtained by applying it in winter. It prevents the soil from running together and hardening, and also prevents the sprouts from coming through, as they otherwise often do, too early in spring, and becoming weakened by subsequent severe freezing."

As the reverse of this plan, M. Godefroy-Lebœuf, the famous French authority, recommends "to clear out of the trenches the soil which has fallen into them from the sides of the mounds, and also remove from above the stools a portion of that with which they were covered at the time they were planted—say, to a depth of one and one-half inches—so that the action of the frost may open the soil and that the rain may penetrate and improve it; also that during the first fine days of spring the sun may warm the surface of the soil and penetrate as far as the stools. There is no fear that the action of the frost should hurt the plants. Asparagus will never freeze as long as the stool is covered with a layer of soil one and one-half to one and three-fourth inches in depth."

If the rows are not less than four feet apart a crop of some other vegetables may be raised between them. Beans, dwarf peas, lettuce, beets, or any kinds which do not spread much, are suitable for the purpose. These by-products will help considerably toward paying the cost of cultivating the main crop, besides having a tendency to keep the soil cool and moist, a condition of no little importance to the asparagus.

CARE DURING THE SECOND YEAR

The treatment of the asparagus plantation during the second year does not differ materially from that of the first season after planting. The ground has to be stirred frequently and kept scrupulously clean, and a sharp lookout must be kept for the advent of injurious insects. As soon as berries appear on the tops they should be stripped off and destroyed, as the ripening seed absorbs a large share of the nourishment which ought to go to the development and strengthening of the crowns which are to produce the following year's crop.

Even with the best of care, some plants will die out from time to time, although the more thoroughly the ground has been prepared at the time of planting, and the better the quality of the roots planted, the fewer failures of this kind will occur. These blank spaces are not only constant eyesores to the methodical gardener, but in the course of several years the aggregate shortage of crops will be considerable, while the amount of labor and fertilizer will be the same as in a fully stocked plantation. Therefore, such vacancies should be filled in the spring, not only of the second year, but whenever they occur in future seasons.

The best way to replant these dead or dying roots is to go over the rows each fall, before the ground freezes, and drive a stake wherever there is a plant missing, as in the spring, before the plants have started, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to indicate the blank spaces. For replanting in the second year good strong two-year-old roots should be used. For the third and future years it is best to raise and keep a supply of a sufficient number of reserve plants for this special purpose in a similar manner as is done for forcing. As early in spring as the season permits these clumps should be carefully lifted and transferred to the permanent plantation. For three-year and older beds good strong three-year-old roots should be used, as younger ones would have but a poor chance between two older and well-established clumps.

CARE DURING THE THIRD AND FUTURE YEARS

The third year cutting may begin in a moderate way, but too much should not be attempted. If all the conditions of growth have been favorable half a crop may be cut without injuring the roots, but under no circumstances should cutting in the third year be continued for more than three weeks. The general care of the bed during the third year is similar to that of the second, with the exception that the soil is worked more toward the rows, ridging them slightly.

In the spring of the third and each succeeding year, as soon as the ground can be worked it should be plowed between the rows, turning the soil toward and over the crowns, leaving a dead furrow between the rows, as seen in Fig. 19. If bleached asparagus is desired, these ridges over the rows should be twelve inches higher than the bottom of the dead furrows between the rows, and when the soil is very light and sandy a hight of fifteen inches is preferable. For green asparagus the ridges are left lower, and the shoots are allowed to grow several inches above the ground before cutting, provided the asparagus beetle does not appropriate them sooner.

After the furrows are plowed out between the rows a home-made ridger is used to smooth the ridges and complete the work. This is formed of two heavy oak boards shod with tire iron, sloping upward and backward, attached to a pair of cultivator wheels. This requires a good team, one horse walking on either side of the row. On the light soils of Long Island this implement works to perfection, but on stiff lands a two-horse disk-wheel cultivator, with two disks on each side, going astride of each row and throwing up fresh soil upon the ridge, proves more effective. The same implements are used for renewing the ridges during the cutting season, which will be required about once a week, as the rains beat them down and the sun bakes a crust upon the top.

Immediately after the cutting season is over the ridges are leveled, by plowing a furrow from each side of the center (Fig. 20), after which the land is harrowed crosswise until the surface is level and smooth. As long as practical, surface cultivation should be given, especially after rains, but usually at this time the plants make such rapid and vigorous growth that there will be little time for the work. Their tops and branches soon fill the entire space and quickly shade the ground so densely as to keep down weed growth. Of course, whatever tall weeds may spring up here and there have to be pulled out by hand.

FALL TREATMENT

The fall clearing of the plantation is an important part of asparagus culture. As soon as the berries are turning red—but not before—the stalks should be cut off even with the ground. If left longer the berries will drop off, their seeds will soon become embedded in the ground and fill the soil with seedling asparagus plants, which are about the most obstinate weed in the asparagus bed. If cut sooner they are not sufficiently matured, and the roots are deprived of their nourishment. All the brush should be removed at once to an open field and burned, so as not to provide lodging-places for injurious insects and fungi. Some recommend leaving the seedless plants as a mulch during the winter, but the possible benefit of this is so insignificant that it is not worth while to leave them for a second cleaning in spring, when time is far more valuable.

RENOVATING OLD ASPARAGUS BEDS

The principal causes of asparagus beds running out are that in the first place ten plants are set out in a space where only one could thrive; then that the ground is not rich enough and had no proper cultivation; and last, but not least, that the cutting of the stalks has been carried to excess. What to do with the old bed is sometimes a perplexing question, especially when a place changes hands and the new proprietor has more progressive ideas than the former one had.

Let the old bed stay, and set out a new one according to rational methods. Some years ago the writer came into possession of an asparagus bed which was known to be forty years old, and may have been much older. It was a solid mass of roots without any distinguishable rows. The spears produced were so small and tough that the first impulse was to dig up the roots. But as this proved to be a more formidable task than was anticipated, another plan was pursued. In autumn the bed was thickly covered with fine yard manure. The following spring the bed was marked out into strips of two feet in width. When the sprouts appeared those in every alternate strip were cut clean off during the entire summer, and the others allowed to grow. In the autumn of the year another heavy application of manure was given to the entire bed. The following year but few shoots appeared in the strips which had been cut all through the summer. These were treated the same as before, and in the third year not a sprout appeared in the alleys. The stalks left for use improved greatly during the first year and the third year were of good serviceable size and quality, so that even after the new bed, which had been planted at the time this experiment was commenced, came into bearing, the old one was retained for several years longer. Probably if the vacant strips had been made three or four feet wide the result would have been still better. This experience suggests the idea that the easiest and least expensive way of exterminating an old asparagus bed is to persistently mow down all the shoots for a season or two.

X

There is a wide difference of opinion among growers as to which is the best kind of manure to use. Whatever the individual preferences may be, there is this satisfaction to know that no kind of plant food can come amiss on the asparagus bed, although the use of some kinds and combinations may be more economical than others. Formerly animal manures only were thought to be of any use for asparagus, and there are still some growers who cling to this opinion. In recent years, however, there has been a decided reaction in this regard in some of the principal asparagus sections. The objections made against stable manure are that it is more expensive to handle, that it is apt to get the land full of weeds, and that it does not contain sufficient phosphoric acid and potash. At present many growers use commercial fertilizers exclusively, convinced that asparagus needs liberal feeding of potash and more nitrogen than is generally supposed to be required.

The composition of 1,000 parts of fresh asparagus sprouts is, according to Wolff:

This analysis shows very accurately what a given weight of asparagus abstracts from the soil, but it does not, and can not, show or even indicate certain indispensable demands. In this, as in other cases, the analysis of a crop is a very uncertain guide to its proper fertilization. It should be clearly understood by every cultivator of the soil that no rigidly fixed formulas can be given for any one crop on all soils. The question of quantity of application and of proportion must always, in the very nature of the case, remain more or less a matter of individual experiment. The following formula, given by Prof. P. H. Rolfs, makes a good asparagus fertilizer:

One thousand five hundred pounds of the above formula should be applied per acre. When possible apply twenty to forty tons of vegetable material, such as partially rotted rakings of barnyard manure. Where such vegetable matter is procurable, the quantity of nitrogen may be decreased proportionately. If manure is obtainable, allowance should be made for the fertilizing elements contained therein.

An excellent formula for one ton of asparagus fertilizer, given by Prof. W. F. Massey, consists of:

This will yield 4.9 per cent. ammonia, 6.1 per cent. available phosphoric acid, 8.4 per cent. potash.

The effects of the application of a scientifically balanced fertilizer ration upon asparagus is clearly illustrated in Fig. 21, which presents a photographic reproduction of an experimental plat of the North Carolina State Horticultural Society at Southern Pines, N. C., fertilized with

per acre, while Fig. 22 shows a plat of equal size which remained unfertilized.

The following table gives the amounts of different fertilizer materials necessary to give the desired quantity of each element:

"Asparagus requires very heavy manuring, and yet its composition would not indicate it," writes Mr. Charles V. Mapes. "The explanation is found in the fact that it must grow very rapidly, otherwise it is tough, stringy and flavorless, the same as with radishes. If it had a long season to grow in, like timothy hay, it might grow successfully in very poor soil. A half ton of timothy hay contains about as much plant food, and in similar proportions, as two thousand bunches of asparagus, or five thousand quarts of strawberries, and yet while this quantity of hay will grow on an acre of almost any poor soil, the strawberries or asparagus for a fair crop per acre require a rich garden soil. If the hay were obliged to make as rapid growth as the asparagus, then it also would require rich soil. With the strawberry there is but the lapse of a few weeks from the time of blossoming to the full development of its fruit. The plants need a superabundance of plant food within easy reach, otherwise the fruit is small and inferior. The plant can not bear profitable fruit and at the same time be compelled to struggle for existence. The same is the case with asparagus. Neither of these crops can take up out of the soil all the fertilizer that needs to be applied for their successful growth, and therefore there is necessarily a large quantity of plant food unused and left over in the soil."

For these reasons, asparagus, while not necessarily an exhaustive crop, requires heavy manuring. One ton of high grade vegetable manure is none too much per acre, and is small, particularly in the expense, as compared with the larger quantities of stable manure per acre, as recommended by some successful growers. As already stated, formerly it was thought necessary to place large quantities of manure in the bottom of the deep trenches in which the young plants were set out, in order that sufficient fertility might be present for several years for the roots, as after the plants were once planted there would be no further opportunity to apply the manure in such an advantageous place. This theory has been found erroneous and the practice has been demonstrated to be rather a waste than otherwise, and besides the roots of asparagus thrive better when resting upon a more compact soil; nor is it necessary that the soil should contain great amounts of humus, or be in an extremely fertile condition when the plants are first put out, since by the system of top-dressing a moderately fertile soil soon becomes exceedingly rich and equal to the demands which the plants make upon it.

The plan of top-dressing beds during the fall or early winter is gradually giving way to the more rational mode of top-dressing in the spring or summer. It was believed that autumn dressing strengthened the roots and enabled them to throw up stronger shoots during the following spring. This is a mistake, however. In the Oyster Bay region formerly all manuring was done in the spring, but the practice of applying all fertilizers immediately after the cutting is finished is rapidly increasing. The reason for this is found in the fact that, during the growth of the stalks, after the cutting season is over, the crowns form the buds from which the spears of next season spring, and it is probable that it is principally during this period that the roots assimilate and store up the materials which produce these spears. This being true, the plant food added to the soil and becoming available after the cessation of vegetation in the autumn can have little, if any, effect upon the spears which are cut for market the following spring; it first becomes of use to the plant after the crop has been cut and the stalks allowed to grow. Thus the manuring of the autumn of 1901 will not benefit the grower materially until the spring of 1903.

Nevertheless, some highly successful asparagus raisers continue to apply fertilizers in the spring, as evidenced by the following directions given by one of the most prominent growers in the Oyster Bay district. "After the roots have been set in the drill, put enough soil on them to cover about two inches. Then sow about 500 pounds of high grade potato fertilizer per acre in the drill. As the weeds commence to grow, cultivate and hoe, letting the soil cave down in the drill. About the middle of the season sow about 500 pounds more of fertilizer in the drill. Continue to cultivate and hoe the remainder of the season. At the end of the season the drill should be entirely filled up. The second year sow about 2,000 pounds of fertilizer per acre broadcast, plow the ground and harrow it down level, and keep the ground clean. The third year open the drill over the asparagus with a one-horse plow, broadcast 2,000 pounds of fertilizer per acre about the time the shoots begin to show, and back-furrow it up with a plow over the drill to form a ridge. Then smooth the ridge down with a home-made implement resembling a snow-plow reversed. Cut every morning all the shoots that show through the ground. Do not cut more than four weeks in the first cutting season. Continue to broadcast 2,000 pounds of fertilizer per acre every year."

From what has been said in regard to the various methods of applying fertilizers to asparagus, it will be readily understood that it can make but little difference how it is distributed, whether on the rows, between the rows, or broadcast, so long as enough of it is put on the land. In an established asparagus bed the entire ground is a dense network of roots, and wherever the fertilizer is put some of the roots will find it, but not those of the plants over the crowns of which it has been planted; not more so than the feeding roots of an apple tree can reach a heap of manure piled around its trunk.

SALT AS A FERTILIZER

Salt is but little used now by commercial asparagus growers, though it has been recommended for this crop from time immemorial. About the principal advantage to be derived from its use is that of killing weeds without injuring asparagus, although it may be applied in sufficient quantities to injure the asparagus. The indirect fertilizing value of salt is mainly due to the fact that it has the power of changing unavailable forms of plant food into available forms; but this object may be secured cheaper and better by the use of kainit. In sandy soils it may encourage the supply of moisture, but on naturally moist and retentive soils heavy dressings of salt may do more harm than good.

Much of the benefits to asparagus for which salt gets credit is its use in a small way in the home garden, due to the fact that not dry salt, but the brine and residue of the pork and corned beef barrels is applied to the asparagus beds. This brine is rich in animal matter extracted from the meat, and usually also in saltpeter, which has been used in pickling. The latter substance alone, without the addition of salt, exerts a strong fertilizing effect upon the plants.

After a series of carefully conducted experiments by Mr. Charles V. Mapes, he writes:

"Salt was only effectual as a fertilizer in proportion as the soil contained accumulated supplies of plant food, either from previous manurings or from natural strength. Asparagus, unlike nearly all other crops, will stand almost unlimited quantities of salt without injury. It also thrives near the seashore, and it was therefore generally believed that liberal quantities of salt were a necessity to its successful growth. Experience has shown, however, that its presence is not at all necessary for its growth, and that the reason that a bed to which salt has been applied shows quickened and improved growth is that the salt dissolves out of the soil plant food which, without the presence of the salt, would have become too slowly reduced to available condition for producing good crops. The salt acted practically as a stimulant and added nothing except chlorine and soda, neither of which in any considerable quantity is essential for growing this crop. It is this dissolving action that takes place in the soil whenever any soluble salt or fertilizer, like kainit, potash salts, acid phosphates, etc., be applied to the soil, that is often mistaken for a manuring one. The result is an exhaustion, not a strengthening, of the soil. The crop is grown at the expense of the limited supply of food that the soluble salt can act upon. The fertilizer has acted practically as a stimulant."

XI

As has been stated in a previous chapter, cutting should not begin until the plants have become strong and vigorous, which requires two or three years from the planting. In the latitude of New York City the cutting season commences usually the last week in April and closes July 10th, although but few growers cut after the 1st, particularly if the season has been a favorable one. Except on old and well-established plantings, cutting should not extend for more than six or seven weeks. Some growers cut asparagus as long as it pays to ship, regardless of the damage done to the plants. The old rule to discontinue cutting asparagus when green peas are abundant is a safe one to follow, especially in the home garden. Unlike other crops, about as much can be cut each day, or at each cutting, as the day before, during the season, varying only according to the weather.

Manner of cutting.—The mode of cutting asparagus varies according to the requirements of the markets, whether green or white stalks are desired. Whatever individual preferences may be, the fact is that in New York City, and some other large market centers, 75 per cent. of the asparagus sold is white or blanched, and it would be useless to try to persuade the buyers to take any other. To show how extreme the convictions are in this matter of taste, we quote from Prof. J. F. C. Du Pre, of the Clemson Agricultural College: "Why any one should prefer the almost tasteless, insipid white to the green 'grass,' into which the sunshine has put the flavor of ambrosia, is beyond my comprehension." On the other hand, Lebœuf, the famous asparagus expert of Argenteuil, writes: "Properly blanched asparagus is infinitely more tender and delicate than green. To serve up green asparagus is to dishonor the table."

In recent years a compromise has been made between the two styles. By allowing the tops of the hilled-up sprouts to grow four inches above the surface, the upper half of the stalk is green while the lower half remains white.

For green asparagus the sprouts are cut when six or seven inches high, and then only so far below the surface as to furnish a stalk about nine inches long. For the white style the rows have to be ridged twelve inches above the crowns, and the stalks are cut as soon as the tops show above the ground, the cutting off being eight or nine inches below the surface.

Whichever method is followed, it is very important to cut every day during the season, and to cut clean at each cutting, taking all the small sprouts as well as the large ones. If the weak and spindling shoots are allowed to grow they will draw away the strength from the roots, to the injury of the crop.

When cutting, the sprout is taken in the left hand and the knife run down close alongside of it to the proper depth, carefully avoiding other spears that are just beginning to push up all around the crown. Then the handle of the knife is moved away from the stalk, to give it the proper slant, the knife shoved down so as to sever the stalk with a tapering cut, and at the same time the stalk is pulled out. After cutting, the asparagus should be removed out of the sun as soon as possible to prevent its wilting and discoloring. Usually this is done by dropping the stalks in a basket which, when full (Fig. 23), is carried to the bunching shed. On large plantations, however, the cutters leave the stalks on the ground to be picked up by boys following closely, as seen in Fig. 24. To facilitate the picking up and carrying away, horse carriers are used, as shown in Fig. 25.

In some sections of Europe, especially at the famous asparagus regions of Argenteuil, a knife is never used. According to W. Robinson: "The slightly hardened crust around the emerging bud and on top of the little mound is pushed aside, the fore and middle finger separated are then thrust deeply into the soft soil, pushing the earth outwards. If a rising shoot be met with on the way down, it is carefully avoided. A second plunge of the two fingers and pushing out of the earth usually brings them to the hardened ground about the crest of the root; the forefinger is then slipped behind the base of the shoot fit to gather, and rushed gently outward, when the shoot at once snaps clean off its base. This plan has the advantage of leaving no mutilated shoots or decaying matter on the ground. Once gathered, care is taken that the shoot is not exposed to the light, but placed at once in a covered basket. As soon as the stalk is gathered, the earth is gently and loosely drawn up with the hand, so as to leave the surface of the mound as it was before, not pressing the earth in any way, but keeping it quite free. The shoots are not rubbed or cleaned in any way—it would disfigure them, and they do not require it."

Knives.—There are several styles of knives for cutting asparagus, but an ordinary ten-inch butcher-knife with the point cut square off, leaving the end about an inch and a quarter wide and ground sharp like a chisel, answers the purpose as well as any of the implements made especially for the purpose. Another serviceable tool for cutting asparagus is a carpenter's thin firmer-chisel, one and one-half inches wide, nearly flat, and the thinnest that can be obtained ground on the convex side or back, about an inch from the end, which should be rounded off on the inside to prevent them from injuring sprouts near by. Other styles of asparagus knives are seen in Fig. 26.

SORTING AND BUNCHING

In some local markets asparagus is sold loose, by weight, in which case but little regard is paid to the size and length and color of the stalks, nor to the style of packing. This is the most profitable way for the grower to sell, as it saves him all the expense and labor of bunching, and as even the smallest stalks are thus salable, there is no waste whatever, while the prices obtained are about the same as those for first-class bunches—that is, two pounds of loose asparagus sell for about the same price as a full-sized bunch. But in city markets asparagus could hardly be sold in such a condition, and it is of first importance that it should be carefully graded and neatly bunched.

Sorting.—Careful growers assort into three sizes: extras, primes, and seconds. The size and weight of the bunches vary somewhat in different markets. Bunches varying from six to twelve inches in length are received at wholesale centers, but the most convenient and popular size for a bunch of prime white asparagus is eight and one-half inches long, averaging thirty spears, and weighing two pounds. The side view of one and the end view of three bunches of this size of white asparagus are shown in Fig. 27. To assure uniformity some ingenious contrivances have been invented, most of which are a great improvement over the old-time bunchers, consisting merely of a board with four pins, six inches long, and placed about four inches apart each way, to form a square. Two strings, usually of bast matting, were laid down on the board, which was set on a bench up against the wall, or had a back made of another board tacked on it at right angles. The asparagus was laid on the buncher between the pins, the tops touching the back or wall to keep them even. When the bunch was large enough the strings were tied firmly, and the butt end of the bunch cut square.