the Italian growers on Bay Farm Island in San
Francisco Bay, but the Southern growers and those along the Sacramento
River lean to the greater distance. The only difference seems to be
whether there will be sufficient nutriment in the soil to force the
plant into giving as large and tender shoots as where each plant is
allowed a larger area. The plants are set with the crowns about four
inches below the surface and the roots are carefully spread out before
covering. Planting is done any time from November to April, but the
middle of February is perhaps the most common time.

The culture for the first year consists in keeping the soil loose and
free from weeds. Ordinarily other crops are grown between the rows, and
their cultivation serves to keep the ground in proper condition. The
asparagus is allowed to come up, feather, and seed without interference,
no cutting being done the first year. Care, however, is taken to cut off
the tops close to the ground in the fall before the seed begins to
drop--the volunteer asparagus being the worst enemy in culture with
which the grower has to deal. About the beginning of the rainy season a
heavy coating of manure is placed over the beds and left to be leeched
in by the rains.

[Illustration: FIG. 48--VIEW OF ASPARAGUS FIELD ON BOULDIN ISLAND,
CALIFORNIA]

The second year some growers cut more or less for market, but the bed
is then longer in coming to its full strength and will not give so large
a product the following years. There is a variation in the spring
working, according to the nature of the land. Where the soil has a
tendency to be cold, the first plowing is away from the rows, so as to
let the sun more quickly down to the starting plants. Where the soil is
light, or the season forward, this plowing is omitted. The latter
plowings are toward the rows, the effort being by ridging to give a long
blanched surface to the shoots. For the canneries where nothing but the
white product is put up, the shoots are cut the instant they show their
tips above the surface. The local market shows a preference for the
greener shoot, and so before cutting it is allowed to stretch itself up
into the light. The third year regular cutting begins, and from that
time forward the beds increase in the quantity and quality of the
product for the next fifteen years.

The methods of marketing are somewhat different from those practiced in
the East. Little or none of the asparagus is bunched. It i