Vegetable Growing for Market 75 



planted in February and March, about 1 ft. apart every way, and about 

 3 in. deep. In due course the square stems, bearing roughish, oval, dull- 

 green leaves, appear, making branched bushy tufts 12 to 15 in. high. 

 Creeping roots are thrown out in every direction beneath the surface of 

 the soil, and on these numerous new tubers are developed in the course 

 of the season, becoming ripe in October. They may be eaten raw, or 

 roasted, boiled, or steamed, and served with melted butter or other fats. 



3. ASPARAGUS 



The Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is a wild plant in Essex and 

 Lincolnshire and other parts of England, and is cultivated for the fat and 

 fleshy young stems. These are made up into bundles, 1000 to 1700 of 

 which can be obtained from an acre of ground, the average weight of a 

 bundle being about 17 oz. 



Asparagus has perhaps touched the popular imagination more than any 

 other. There has been an enormous increase in the production of it in 

 recent years, with the result to the producer that the price is reduced 

 to half what it was. If the methods of cultivation had not been revolu- 

 tionized in the direction of saving expense, to grow Asparagus now would 

 be a losing game. The directions in an old gardening book for laying 

 down an Asparagus bed read like laying the foundations for a castle, and 

 indeed, even now, one meets gardening enthusiasts who talk of making an 

 Asparagus bed as of the event of a lifetime. 



The advent of keen competition quickly dismissed all such ideas to the 

 limbo of the outworn, and along with them the 6-ft. beds with double 

 rows, the 5 -ft. beds with single rows, and the laborious spitting and 

 spade landing of a quarter of a century ago. 



The Asparagus is a sea-shore plant and prefers deep sandy soil with 

 moisture and good drainage, such as is found in the neighbourhood of 

 Colchester, or Hersham in Surrey. It requires warm nights and sunshine 

 to obtain the maximum crop from the stools; such cool sunless summers 

 as those of 1909 and 1910 mean that the stools do not exert themselves 

 to anything like their best. The extension of the cultivation of Asparagus 

 has taken it to soils that can in no sense be classed as ideal for it, and 

 as the process continues it must be presumed that some success is attained. 

 At the same time it cannot be denied that the course open to the least risk 

 to the cultivator is to devote his energies to those crops for which the land 

 he is working is most suited. 



Asparagus, even when cultivated on modem methods, with plough 

 instead of spade, is an expensive crop, and can only give satisfaction 

 when done with care and judgment, and under conditions favourable to 

 produce of good grade. First-class Asparagus still meets a ready demand; 

 mediocre finds much competition; inferior finds itself thrown upon a cold 

 and very critical world. 



