STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 239 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



The following paper is the one to which reference is made upon 



page 67: 



ASPARAGUS— ITS CULTURE. 



KY DR. H. SCHRUCDER, BLOOMINGTON. 



Mr. President and Members of the Society : 



Asparagus belongs to the natural order Lilicacea. It is one of the 

 most lucrative, and in the old world a most aristocratic vegetable. Little 

 is yet known in America of its great medical properties. People with 

 diseases of the kidneys and bladder should use it as a medicine. • 



On the table of the kings, the finest hotels, as well as on the table of 

 "better off" people, we find asparagus as one of the finest delicacies, 

 served cooked with a sauce of butter, or milk, or egg-sauce, or as a salad 

 with vinegar, oil and onions. 



It is generally believed that India is the home of our asparagus. In 

 the last century we find it as a vegetable in the gardens of the aristocracy 

 in Europe. We find the asparagus also in paintings of our great masters 

 of the fifteen and sixteenth centuries in Italy, but how it was used and 

 served I was unable to learn. Space and time do not allow me to go 

 into more detail about its history. ' 



During the last fifteen years the culture of asparagus has grown to 

 great dimensions. I was astonished four years ago, when I traveled over 

 Europe, when I saw the broad fields and the commerce of this most 

 lucrative vegetable. The largest fields I found in Leibeck, Hamburg, 

 Ulm, Bamberg, Erfurt, Berlin, Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel ; also Meck- 

 lenburg has taken a big start in its culture. Erfurt is known to raise the 

 giant kind, but Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel have the honor of raising 

 the most delicate asparagus. 



If this essay shall be a benefit for our fruit-raisers, gardeners and 

 farmers, I must be allowed to show what other people have done and 

 what we free and enterprising Americans can do in this line. 



Please follow me now to the city of Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel, in 

 North Germany. Twenty years ago we could find here and tliere a small 

 asparagus bed in the gardens. People did not understand the use of it, 

 similar as it was to the tomato in our country ; they began to taste it and 

 try it, and soon they found that it was one of the prime vegetables, and 

 at once it became famous. The garden was no longer large enough for 

 its culture, and the fields had to make room for it. Canning factories 

 were started, and the asparagus became an article of every-day use. It 

 became part of the provisions of the ships ; it was exported to foreign 

 countries, and the price of the vegetable raised three-fold. Wholesale 

 dealers opened large establishments, and even a stock company, with an 

 immense capital, was started in the city of Brunswick, and its stock is 



