"It is not safe to draw conclusions from such limited observations as these, further, at least, than to accept them as representing the truth approximately. Allowing a wide margin for possible error, there would still seem to be sufficient difference in productive capacity between the male and female plants to justify the selection of the former and rejection of the latter when a new plantation is to be started. If the figures given in the table are taken as a basis, the gain in the crop, if the male plants alone were used, would each season pay for all the plants rejected, and leave a handsome margin at the end of the term of years when an asparagus bed has served its period of usefulness. Male plants can be secured by division of old plants, or by selecting those that bear no seed, after they have attained the age of two years."
In summing up the results of this experiment, Professor Green states that male asparagus plants are about fifty per cent. more productive than female plants, and the shoots being larger have a greater market value.
VII
THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION
s asparagus in its wild state is usually found growing in light and sandy soils along or near the seashore, it has long been supposed that it could not be cultivated in other localities and soils. While it is true that asparagus succeeds best in a sandy, rich, and friable loam, naturally underdrained and yet not too dry, there is not another vegetable which accommodates itself more readily to as varying soils and conditions. There is hardly a State in the United States in which at present asparagus is not grown more or less extensively and profitably, and the most famous asparagus districts of France and Germany are situated at great distances from the seashore.
The question of what soil to use is, as a rule, already settled; we have to use the soil we have. Any good garden soil is suitable for asparagus, and if it is not in the most favorable condition, under existing circumstances, it can easily be made so. The soil should be free from roots, stones, or any material that will not readily disintegrate, or that will interfere with the growth of the spears, and with the knife in cutting. Fruit or other trees, or high shrubs, must not be allowed in the asparagus bed, because of the shade they throw over the beds, and because their roots make heavy drafts upon the soil. Nor should high trees, hedges, hills, or buildings be so near as to shade the beds, because all the sunshine obtainable is needed to bring the spears quickly to the surface. Whenever practicable the asparagus bed should be protected from cold winds, and so slope that the full benefit of the sunshine will be obtained during the whole day. Brinckmeier, in his "Braunschweiger Spargelbuch," gives the following three rules for guidance in selecting a location for asparagus beds:
"1. One should choose, in reference to ground characteristics, open, free-lying land, protected to the north and east [which, for American conditions, should be north and west], of gradual slope, free from trees or shrubbery.