Mr. Baldwin: I have always practiced that. I think what makes it crooked is cultivating the top and cutting the crowns off.
A Member: When the weeds come in we disk it.
Mr. Record: I never like to disk it. If your bed is very old you are liable to cut some of your crowns rather than to keep the weeds out.
A Member: Your manure would be all gone then?
Mr. Record: I know there was a man right adjoining me who had an asparagus bed, and he used a lot of rotten manure the summer before, and he got very little asparagus that was marketable. I asked him what the trouble was, and he said he didn't know. This year he had a good crop. I can't say it was the manure that did that, only it looks that way.
A Member: How would you start a new planting?
Mr. Record: I would plow my ground thoroughly and get it in good shape.
A Member: Wouldn't fertilize the first season?
Mr. Record: I would. I would fertilize my asparagus ground two years.
A Member: I mean in preparing your patch for the new planting?