final decisions on matters of taste. The business of the
cultivator is to produce the kind of growth that is required, whether
white or green, or of a quality intermediate between the two. This is
easily done, making allowance for conditions. When green Asparagus is
alone in demand, the cultivator may be advised to have in readiness, as
the heads are making their first show, a sufficient supply of some rough
and cheap protecting material, such as grass and coarse weeds, cut with
a sickle from odd corners of the shrubbery and meadow land, or clean hay
and straw perfectly free from mildew; but for obvious reasons stable
litter should not be used. A very light sprinkling of material over an
Asparagus bed that is making a first show of produce will ward off the
morning frosts, and amply compensate for the little trouble in saving
many tender green sticks that the frosts would melt to a jelly and
render worthless. After the second or third week in May the litter may
be removed if needful; but if appearances are of secondary importance,
it may be left to shrink away on the spot.

==Cutting.==--Asparagus as supplied by market growers is needlessly long
in the stem. The bundles have an imposing appearance, no doubt, but the
useless length adds nothing to the comfort of those at table, and is a
wasteful tax on the energy of the plant. For home consumption it will
generally suffice if the white portion is about four inches long, and
this determines the depth at which the sticks should be cut. Here it may
be useful to remark that deeply buried roots do not thrive so well as
those which are nearer the surface, nor do they produce such early
crops. The sticks are usually cut by thrusting down a stiff
narrow-pointed knife, or specially made saw, close to each shoot; and it
is necessary to do this with judgment, or adjacent shoots, which are not
sufficiently advanced to reveal their presence by lifting the soil, may
be damaged. To avoid this risk of injury by the knife it is possible
from some beds to obtain the sticks without the aid of any implement by
a twist and pull combined, but the process needs a dexterous hand and is
impracticable in tenacious soils. The sticks of a handsome sample will
be white four or five inches of their length; the tops close, plump, of
a purplish-green colour, and the colour extending two or at most three
inches down the stems. Both size and degree of colouring are, however,
so entirely questions of tast