If the ground selected for the bed is a well-drained sandy loam, is clean, free from sod, roots, stones, etc., I would give it a top-dressing of six inches of good barnyard manure, which by trenching or plowing I would thoroughly mix with the soil to the depth of at least two feet.  If the ground is not free from stones, roots, and sod, I should put on the manure, as directed, in the autumn, and begin on one side of the prospective bed and trench it all over, mingling the fertilizer through the soil.  The trencher can throw out on the surface back of him every stone, root, and weed, so that by the time he is through there is a sufficient space of ground amply prepared.

On all soils except a wet, heavy clay I prefer autumn planting.  During the latter part of October or early November put in the plants as explained above, or else make a straight trench that will give room for the spreading of the roots, and leave the crowns between three and four inches below the surface.  Then level the ground, and cover the row with a light mulch of stable-manure as you would strawberries.  If more convenient to set out the plants in spring, do so as soon as the ground is dry enough to crumble freely when worked.  In the spring rake off the mulch, and as early as possible fork the ground over lightly, taking pains not to touch or wound the crowns of the plants.  The young, slender shoots will soon appear, and slender enough they will be at first.  Keep them free of weeds and let them grow uncut all through the first year; mow off the tops in late October, and cover the entire bed with three or four inches of coarse barnyard manure.  In spring rake off the coarsest of this mulch, from which the rains and melting snows have been carrying down richness, dig the bed over lightly once (never wounding the roots or crowns of the plants), and then sow salt over the bed till it is barely white.  Let the tops grow naturally and uncut the second year, and merely keep clean.  Take precisely the same action again in the autumn and the following spring.  During the latter part of April and May a few of the strongest shoots may be cut for the table.  This should be done with a sharp knife a little below the surface, so that the soil may heal the wound, and carefully, lest other heads just beneath the surface be clipped prematurely.  Cut from the bed very sparingly, however, the third year, and let vigorous foliage form corresponding root-power.  In the autumn of the third and the spring of the fourth year the treatment is precisely the same.  In the fourth season, however, the shoots may be used freely to, say, about June 20, after which the plants should be permitted to grow unchecked till fall, in order to maintain and increase the root-power.  Every year thereafter there should be an abundant top-dressing of manure in the fall, and a careful digging of the ground in the early spring.  Light, sandy soil, clear of stones, is well adapted to asparagus, but should be treated on the principles already indicated in this work.  There should be no attempt, by trenching, to render a porous subsoil more leaky.  It is useless to give the bed a thorough initial enriching.  Put on a generous top-dressing every autumn and leave the rains to do their work, and good crops will result.