Farm Field And Garden

Mr. Green, of' the Ohio experiment station, reports that male plants of asparagus proved about 50 per cent, inora productive than the female, and the shoots, being larger, haveagreater market value. Among prominent agriculturists commenting in The Rural New Yorker upon the question whether it would pay to secure a field of male asparagus plants exclnsively Mr. E. S. Groff, of the Wisconsiu experiment station, says: "If the results obtained by Mr. Green can be depended upon f or all plantations cf asparagus, it seems to me ;hat all growers of this vegetable located upon high priced land can afford the extra labor required to grow exclusively male plants. "For such plantations the seedlinga could be grown ii the country, where land is cheap, and eet out closely, where they could remain until their character can be determined, when the male plants could be assorted out and removed to their permanent place. I think it may fairly be questioned if all plantations of asparagus would show so niarked a differeuce in favor of the male plants as did Mr. Green's. In a trial conducted by myself in 1889, on a garden bed, the male plants showed no appreciable advantage in productiveness. The report of this trial has not been published because the bed was not a large one and the plants were rather uneven." Mr. W. M. Munson, of the Maine station, says: "In iny opinión the extra trouble of selecting male plants would be j astiüed. There is certainly a marked difference in the yield of male and female plants, and the best is never too good " J. M. Smith. says: "The only safe way I know of to distinguish the male from the female plants would be to let both grow in the seed beds for at least two years, for the plants rarely bear seeds the first year, and then mark the seses in such a way that each can be known. If by this means we get a nice bed of pure staminate plants, it is said that no seeds will como up in the spring, annoying ns with a great host of young plants, and these nmst be destroyed or the bearing beds will be ruined within a few years. # "Af ter I have finished cutting for the season, my beds make a tremendous growth and a large erop of seed ripens every fall. This growth is all allowed to remain on the ground daring the winter, as it is the most perfect mulch 1 have ever seen. After taking off and burning the tops the beds get a very heavy dressing of manure, which is worked in, care being taken not to disturb the roots, aud the beds are ready for their sea3on"s work. After a time the weeds begin to come up, and as the weather becomes warmer the young plants from the seeds left upon the beds start also, and both must be destroyed. The best wr.y to do this is to set some good, careful men at work with broad hoes, just after we have cut the beds very close. They destroy the weeds and the young asparagus plants at the same time. "We finished hoeiug our beds on June 9, and I doubt very muela whether it has cost me one dollar extra to destroy the young asparagus plants with the weeds. and I do not reinember ever to have f ound it neeessary to go over the beds on purpose to destroy the young plants. I do not believe that I could make any money by going to the trouble and expense oí making beds of purely male plants. If í had thought so- and I have thonghi the matter over many times - I would certainly have had beds of thein a number of years ago."