Preparation Of The Ground

Asparagus differs from most other vegetables in that it is a perennial,

and when once planted properly, in suitable soil, it will continue to

produce an annual crop for a generation if not for an indefinite period,

while if the work is done carelessly and without consideration for the

plant's requirements the plantation will never prove satisfactory and

will run out entirely in the course of a few years. The establishing of

an asparagus bed is naturally more expensive than the planting and

raising of annual vegetables. In addition to this, the plants have to be

taken care of for three years before a crop can be harvested. On the

other hand, an asparagus bed is an investment for a lifetime, and the

dividends derived from it increase in proportion to the care and

thoroughness bestowed upon the preparation of the land.



It is at once apparent, then, that nothing should be neglected to bring

the soil into the best possible condition before planting. This truth

was fully recognized by the gardeners of former years who practiced

most extraordinary methods in order to bring the land into the most

favorable condition for asparagus. Even now in some European countries,

where labor is cheap, the entire ground is trenched to a depth of three

or four feet, turning in at the same time all the available manure,

seaweed, and other fertilizing material.



A famous old-time asparagus bed in England was made in this manner: "The

land was trenched three feet deep in trenches three feet wide and cast

up into rough ridges, after a crop of summer peas. All decaying

vegetation in the rubbish yards and corners was at the same time well

sorted and turned up. Early in autumn also were added some old mushroom,

melon, and cucumber bed material, a lot of manure from piggeries, cow

houses, and stables, a quantity of road-grit and sand, a quantity of

ditch and drain parings, turfy loam and sods, quite three feet thick.

These were all turned over four times and well incorporated together,

between Michaelmas and Lady Day, as one would a dungheap, the whole

being left in large ridges exposed to the frost. By April this compost

was in a kindly state; it was, therefore, laid down and planted with

good, clean one-year-old asparagus plants, which certainly grew in a

most extraordinary way."



Another elaborate way of making an asparagus bed, formerly practiced in

France, is described by Dr. Maccullogh as follows: "A pit the size of

the intended plantation is dug four feet in depth, and the mold taken

from it must be sifted, taking care to reject all stones, even as low in

size as a filbert nut. The best part of the mold must then be laid aside

before making up the beds. The materials of the bed are then to be laid

in the following proportions and order: Six inches of common dunghill

manure, eight inches of turf, six inches of dung as before, six inches

of sifted earth, eight inches of turf, six inches of very rotten dung,

eight inches of the best of earth. The last layer of earth must then be

well mixed with the last of dung. The compartment must now be divided

into beds five feet wide by paths constructed of turf two feet in

breadth and one foot in thickness."



A bed prepared in this manner, and planted and cultivated with as much

painstaking care, will no doubt produce asparagus of unsurpassed

quality, and may last forever. Yet the use of modern implements and a

better knowledge of the nature and requirements of the plant have

demonstrated that first-class asparagus can be produced with far less

expense and labor. While a deep and loose soil produces earlier and

better crops than a heavy and shallow one, indiscriminate deepening of

the soil by trenching or other means is not always desirable, even where

the cost does not come into consideration. When the subsoil is very

light and poor and deficient in humus, the placing of the better surface

soil below and the infertile lower strata above, trenching would be a

positive detriment. The same would be the case where the subsoil

consists of heavy impervious clay.



In the fall preceding planting the land should be plowed deeply and left

in the rough state during the winter. Subsoiling has often been

recommended, yet practical growers but rarely make use of the subsoil

plow in the preparation of asparagus plantations, although the value of

subsoiling where the subsoil is heavy can not be doubted. Where stable

or barnyard manure can be had cheaply, and the soil is heavy, a liberal

coat spread broadcast over the surface and left to the action of the

weather during winter will ameliorate the ground considerably. In most

cases, however, the same object may be obtained by applying the manure

in spring. Joseph Harris mentions a case in which a bed was plowed and

subsoiled in the fall and the soil filled with manure, while another bed

near by was planted without manure, or extra preparation of any kind,

relying entirely on artificial fertilizers after planting, and the

latter was by far the better bed. As early in spring as the ground is in

suitable condition to be worked it has to be plowed and harrowed and

brought into as perfect condition as possible.