erries, 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 practi