54 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



" The mission of this monograph is to popularize the use of this excellent 

 vegetable, especially among those who have the land upon which to grow it. 



"Asparagus has been known as a table vegetable from very early times^ 

 having been mentioned in the earliest historical records; and as far back 

 as the beginning of the Christian era, shoots of this plant are mentioned 

 which in size compare favorably with the result of our best efforts today. 



"The wild plant is a native of Europe and Asia and is scattered over a 

 wide area of these continents, but is not a native of our country. It is now 

 found, however, growing wild in most localities, having escaped from culti- 

 vation and found conditions admirably suited to its existence. 



" Like many others of our best vegetables, the plant, as a botanical spec- 

 imen from the marshes of the Orient, bears little resemblance to the highly 

 developed esculent of the gardens of Paris, London, and Boston. It 

 belongs to the lily family and has no nearer relatives in this country than 

 Solomon's Seal and its counterfeit, smilacina. It grows so commonly 

 abroad, about the edges of salt marshes, that the opinion has prevailed 

 among gardeners that to grow the plant to perfection, as a garden vegetable, 

 a considerable dressing of salt is necessary. Careful experiments have 

 thrown some doubt upon the soundness of this belief. Botanists call the 

 species dioecious, because the male and female Howers grow on separate 

 plants. Thus in an asparagus field we usually find less than half the plants 

 bearing berries. This characteristic of the plant has led to the hypothesis 

 that to develop the highest type of a garden plantation, only male plants 

 should be chosen, thus avoiding the exhaustive process of growing the fruit 

 and eliminating the production of seedling plants from the fields, which 

 results from the periodical distribution of seed, and is unavoidable in a 

 mixed jjlantation. As yet no recorded experiments have shown any evi- 

 dence of the wisdom of this plan of management. 



" In its wild state no varieties of asparagus have been noticed. Variations 

 of type under domestication have been observed, given names, and 

 catalogues of seedsmen have described these variations under the heads of 

 distinct varieties. It is rare, however, to find an instance when a pound 

 of seed has been sown and not resulted in the production of the described 

 varieties, no matter under what name the seed may have been purchased. 

 In my own plantation, from a package of seed labeled 'Conover's Collossal,' 

 purchased of one of our most reliable seedsmen, I have examples of three 

 distinct types, and from the most careful descriptions I could obtain of 

 the variety bought ( which, by the way, are very greatly lacking in per- 

 spicuity ) a rather small minority are true to tyi)e. 



"I doubt not, however, that very considerable improvements in the 

 vegetable may be made by careful selection of plants for breeding pur- 

 poses, by one who has taste and time to be employed in the work of 

 selection.. I have plants which regularly furnish a finer quality of 

 product by far than the average of the field, and still others which 

 outstrip their fellows in vitality and quantity of product. 



THE SEEDLING NURSERY. 



"Although he who plants a few roots of asparagus need not be instructed 

 in the method of growing these plants, still it may be a matter of interest 

 to know how it is done. The ground for a seedling plantation, if choice 

 can be had, should be a rich, well-drained, sandy loam. A pound of seed, 

 costing sixty cents, will be sufficient for several hundred feet of drill. 



