150 ASPARAGUS 
ASPARAGUS ON LONG ISLAND 
The cultivation of asparagus on Long Island does 
not differ materially, in most respects, from that 
practiced in other localities, other than in its extent. 
But there is probably more to be learned about its 
cultivation there than in any other section of the 
country, from the fact of its being grown under 
such changed conditions of soil. Here it can be 
shown that the character of soil is not, of itself, 
of great importance, and that on soil usually con- 
sidered worthless—on land that can be bought, 
uncleared, at from five to ten dollars per acre—aspara- 
gus can be made as profitable a crop as on land con- 
sidered cheap at one hundred dollars per acre. 
Nearly every farm, the northern boundary of 
which is the Long Island Sound, has from two to 
twenty acres of soil composed very largely of fine 
drift sand, in all respects like quick-sand in character. 
This, when mixed with light loam, as is frequently 
the case, is the most favorable land for asparagus, and 
in such it is largely grown, being unsuited to potatoes 
or cereals, and where grasses make but a feeble 
struggle for existence. Within five minutes’ walk to 
the south the soil is from a lively to a quite heavy 
loam, in which corn, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, 
and, in fact, all other crops revel. In this soil the 
asparagus also finds a congenial home, but no better 
than in the sand, in which but little else can be grown; 
neither can it be grown here more profitably. The 
expense for fertilizers is a little more on the sandy 
soil, but the cost in labor on the heavy soil will quite 
