No. 3.--Growth but poor, and somewhat late. The heads made their
appearance on April 4th, 6th, 9th, and 11th; one did not show till
the 22d. Fifty heads barely formed half a bundle and only weighed
two and one-half pounds.

To sum up, it is clear that the plants of a year old in their
fourth season--that is to say, after having been planted out for
three years--gave a bundle weighing seven pounds, while those of
two years old only gave three and three-quarter pounds, and those
of three years old only two and one-half pounds; in other words,
taking round numbers, the plantation made with the one-year-old
plants produced double the crop of the two-year-old plants and
treble that of the three-year-old plants. The reader may easily
draw his conclusions from the preceding facts.

Equally important is a careful selection of the individual plants to be
set out. A crown with four or five strong, well-developed buds is far
better than one with a dozen or more of weak and sickly ones, as the
latter will always produce thin and poor spears of poor quality. It is
therefore highly to be recommended to select only plants with not over
six buds and discard all others. The roots should be strong and of
uniform thickness, succulent and not too fibrous. Dry or withered roots
have to be cut off, and plants with many bruised or otherwise damaged
roots should be rejected entirely. The best roots are the cheapest.

MALE AND FEMALE PLANTS

It has long been observed that all of the asparagus plants in a bed do
not produce seeds, owing to the fact that the male and female flowers in
asparagus are nearly always borne on separate plants. Seed bearing is an
exhaustive process, and, as might be supposed, those plants that have
produced seed have less vigor than those that have not. In order to
determine the difference in vigor between the seed bearing and non-seed
bearing plants, Prof. William J. Green, horticulturist of the Ohio
Experiment Station, staked off fifty of each in a plantation of half an
acre. When the cuttings were made the shoots taken from male and female
plants were kept separate, and the weight of each recorded in Bulletin
No. 9, Volume III., of the Ohio Station, as follows:

"The cuttings were made at regular intervals and in the ordinary manner,
as for market purposes. The weight of shoots taken at each cutting is
not given in the table, since the facts are quite