Vegetables with Edible Leaves or Steins 129 



and the wooden cover fixed over the tier. Another tier may 

 be put above in the same manner. These crates must be 

 sent to the market right side up. Care must be taken not 

 to bruise or otherwise mutilate the stems, as this is likely 

 to cause them to rot in transit. 



Blanching. 



Often an asparagus plot is not cultivated, but this may 

 be done with profit. It too often happens that the 

 asparagus plants are allowed to drop their seed. The 

 seedlings spring up between the rows and obliterate them, 

 and also crowd the plants, making the stalks come up 

 slender and too small for market. If all seed-stalks are 

 cut off before the berries are half grown, this difficulty will 

 be obviated. To blanch the product, a furrow is thrown 

 upon the rows from each side and raked level. By so 

 doing the plants are buried several inches deeper than they 

 grew. The light being excluded from the growing shoot, 

 no chlorophyll forms until the tip bursts through the soil, 

 when the cutting should be done. After the winter frosts 

 have killed the plants to the ground, the tops may be re- 

 moved and composted, and the bed raked, to be ready for 

 early spring cutting. While our markets do not call 

 for blanched asparagus, the blanched articles will sell 

 first when both are on the same market and offered for 

 the same price, indicating that there is a decided pref- 

 erence for the blanched vegetable. 



Raising asparagus plants. 



In summer, certain of the stalks produce flowers, and 

 later, seed ; this is in small berries about the size of peas. 



