Only the latter bear seeds which will not be fertile unless the flower is impregnated by the pollen of the former. Thus it requires two distinct plants for the propagation of the species. Should a variety originate by chance, its flower would require the pollen of the previous variety to fertilize it; and to transmit its distinctive features to descendants, it must be ever afterwards exempt from any altering influences of the pollen. If such breeding of varieties was probable in dioecious plants, the chances of cross-fertilization are such that varieties and sub-varieties would be constantly seen.

RAISING THE PLANTS.

Asparagus is propagated from seed, the usual practice being to raise the plants in a seed-bed, and transfer them to the field when one or two years old, those of one year being much the best. It has generally been, at the South, not only the uneconomical, but from an horticultural point of view, the objectionable custom to purchase the plants from Northern nurseries, at from four dollars to eight dollars per thousand, without any knowledge of their previous cultivation, age, or condition. This has been done when the plants could be grown much cheaper, and much better at home, with the additional advantage of being able to lift them carefully and fresh from the seedbed when needed; whereas, procured from a distance, they are stale, roughly handled and bruised. The price of the seed is usually about fifty cents per pound, containing some fourteen thousand seeds, which should supply at least ten thousand five hundred plants, or enough for three acres. At the average price of plants, as offered by the largest seed firms, the same number of plants would cost twenty-one dollars. Small, spindling shoots are comparatively worthless. The asparagus grower should start his seed-bed with the ultimate object of producing large, stout sprouts, (or "grass," in the language

of the market), and to do this he must avoid stunted plants. A good asparagus plantation is expensive. It brings in no return for three years, but when it once comes into bearing, it remains productive for twenty years or more, and affords good profits. Unless it can be properly made from the start, it had undertaken.

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The seed of asparagus is not injured by frost. It may be sown from December 1st to the middle of March. Select high, sandy or well-drained, light land, which has been well manured; sow in drills two feet apart, and one inch deep; the plants should stand about three inches apart in the row. At these distances, one-fourth of an acre will grow twenty-one thousand seven hundred and eighty plants, or a sufficient number to plant five or six acres. If proper care is taken of them during their growth, the plants will be superior to any of one year's growth, purchasable at any price from any Northern nursery, simply in consequence of our longer and warmer growing season. In addition to this, are the advantages of being able in transplanting to return them to the soil, fresh and without injury to the roots.

THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION.

One of the chief claims of asparagus to popular favor is its early appearance in the spring; and hence, a heavy cold clay, particularly if badly drained, should be avoided. A light, high, warm, sandy soil, heavily fertilized, is best adapted to this crop, and it especially flourishes when such soil is located near its native habitat-the sea coast. The more manure, the better the cultivation, the larger and better will be the "grass;" therefore the land should be in fine, mellow condition before the application of the manure. After deep plowing, subsoiling, and harrowing, a coating of about a hundred wagon loads of green stable manure to the acre, without much long litter,

should be turned under as deeply as possible. Future surface manurings will benefit the top soil. The field being thoroughly harrowed, straight rows should be laid off with a two-horse plow, going only in one direction, care being taken to have the straight cuts, or land-sides of the furrows, equi-distant from each other, and five feet apart. If the roots of the plants are long, it will probably be necessary to deepen the furrows by following the first with a smaller plow. In the bottom of the furrow it is well to apply some lasting fertilizer, as coarse

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ground bone, at the rate of half a ton to the acre. the land is high and warm, the crowns of the plants might eventually be about six inches below the surface; but in colder ground it would be unsafe to place them deeper than four inches, or the sprouts might be late in the spring, and a part of the plants might perish. The roots are round and succulent, with numerous small fibres, which unite to form the crown, from which the

sprouts appear. The crown grows laterally, the base of every succeeding bud, during the life of the plant, remaining at about the same depth. This lateral manner of growth, and the position of the buds, are shown in fig. 15. The deeper the plant can be placed, due regard being had to the requisites of an early and profitable growth, the better, as the crowns will be less liable to injury at the hands and knives of careless cutters of the crop. The old method of close planting of asparagus upon trenched ground, with a subterranean layer, three feet deep, of oyster shells, or brickbats, for drainage, and with the idea of preventing the too deep growth of the roots, has been abandoned. One might as well expect to see stalks of corn grow thirteen feet high, and thick in proportion, when the grain is sown broadcast for fodder, as to look for good "grass" from the old manner of planting.

An old asparagus plant makes an enormous growth of root, both as regards its mass and length, and wide planting admits of these roots securing a sufficiency of food, and of their making a vigorous growth without crowding.

SETTING OUT THE PLANTS.

The plants should be carefully lifted from the seed bed with a digging fork, without bruising the roots. These, if very long and irregular in length, may be shortened back a little.

The distances in the row being marked off at from two to two and a half feet, or even three feet, a plant is dropped at each place, and the planter, following, holds the plant at the proper depth, say six inches, against the land side, or cut, with the roots spread out from the crown in a fan-shaped manner, and, with a single sweep of the left hand, fixes it in position with loose soil from the top of the furrow. The subsequent filling in may be

done with the plow; but the hoe is to be preferred, as the depth can be more exactly adjusted, and there is less danger of an accidental disturbance of the plant. For safety, until growth commences, the crowns should not be covered the entire depth, but only two or three inches; when the shoots have grown several inches high, the covering may be completed, and this will serve as a working of the ground, and destroy weeds.

CULTIVATION.

Its vigorous growth enabling it to overtop grass, and to hold its own against weeds, asparagus will withstand as much neglect as any other vegetable; but it will respond to generous treatment. The expense of its first planting, and its care, until it commences to make a return two or three years later, are too great to admit of neglect. If the plantation has been properly made and properly tended, its rank and luxuriant growth will meet across the five-feet rows in the third year and smother most weeds during the summer. The crop should be cultivated and hoed as often as necessary to subdue grass and weeds. Asparagus produces seed the second year. As soon, therefore, as the stalks commence to die in the fall, they should be chopped down and burned, to prevent, so far as possible, the growth of young seedlings among the crop, which are not readily eradicated, and are really weeds.

It is useless to apply manure when the plant is at rest in the fall and winter, but just prior to the commencement of growth, make an application of half a ton to the acre of Peruvian guano, bone-flour, or ground fish guano, mixed with muck, woods-earth, or garden soil, and thoroughly harrow it in. If stable manure is used, it should remain upon the surface. The material being at hand, a mulch thick enough and close enough to prevent the growth of weeds and grass, to be burned off before the