acter. Hence, as the soils best adapted to the growth of the plant
are commonly deficient in vegetable matter, which desirable
characteristic can only be found in abundance on the lands too low and
moist for the asparagus crop, some preparatory culture should be used
that will tend to increase the amount of organic decay in the soil.

For this purpose there is nothing better than the Southern field or cow
pea. The land should be prepared by giving it a heavy dressing of acid
phosphate and potash; and putting it in peas sown broadcast at the rate
of a bushel or more per acre. With a heavy dressing of the mineral
fertilizers the pea crop will be heavy, and should be allowed to fully
ripen and decay on the land, to be plowed under, and the process
repeated the following year. In the mean time the seed should be sown
for the growth of the roots for setting the land.

Two crops of cow-peas allowed to die on the land and turned under will
give a store of vegetable matter that would be hard to get in any other
manner. While heavy manuring with stable manures is very desirable where
the material can be had at a reasonable cost, the larger part, and, in
fact, nearly all of the Southern asparagus, must be grown by the aid of
chemical fertilizers, and the storing up of humus in the land from the
decaying peas is an important factor in the placing of the soil in a
condition to render the chemical fertilizers of more use, since the
moisture-retaining nature of the organic matter plays an important part
in the solution of matters in the soil. Aside from this, there will be a
large increase in the nitrogen contents of the soil through the
nitrification of this organic matter.

The second crop of peas should be plowed under in late fall when
perfectly ripe and dead, so that the land can be gotten into condition
for planting in early spring. The land should be thoroughly plowed, and
if the clay subsoil comes near the surface it should be loosened with
the subsoil plow. Furrows are then run out four and a half to five feet
apart, going twice in the furrow, and then cleaning out with shovels
till there is a trench a foot deep. In the bottom of this trench place a
good coat of black earth from the forest, or, if well-rotted manure can
be had, use that of course. Set the plants twenty inches apart in the
furrow, and by means of hand-rakes pull in enough earth to barely cover
the crowns.

As growth begins, the soil is to be gradually work