Vegetable Growing for Market 79 



Asparagus. This consideration, and the other, that the demand for the 

 product is very limited, probably account for the fact that few growers 

 attempt it. The commencement is the same as that described above for 

 natural Asparagus. The yearling plants, after being forked up, singled, and 

 the weak ones thrown out, are planted in ground that has been kept well 

 manured for several years, in rows 2 ft. apart, and 15 in. from plant to 

 plant. They are either laid in the furrow as the land is ploughed or 

 planted in cuts made with a spade. In either case, after planting, the 

 ground is well firmed around them with a roller or the feet. After this 

 there is nothing else to do but keep the crop clean during summer, and 

 clear the old haulm away in the winter, for three years. Then the crowns 

 are either ploughed out or dug out and laid in forcing beds heated either 

 with hot water or manure. Boxes and lights are put over them, and fine 

 soil is sifted to a depth of 6 to 8 in. 



When the buds of Asparagus come through they are gathered by 

 forcing two fingers into the soil beside the bud and breaking it out of 

 the crown. The buds are tied in flat bundles and washed for market. 

 " Ware " makes 4s. to 7s. per bundle and " Sprue " Is. to Is. 6d. Its season 

 is latter end of February, March, and early April. [w. G. L.] 



The large area of land estimated at about 1000 ac. devoted to Aspa- 

 ragus, and its average value per acre, justly entitles it to precedence over 

 other crops of vegetables grown in the Evesham district. It is hardly too 

 much to say that about 500 ac. have been devoted to Asparagus during 

 the past twenty years, the period during which the writer has periodically 

 and systematically visited all the districts in the county of Worcester in 

 the work of the advancement of horticulture. 



Asparagus is grown commercially in Worcestershire, in almost all cases, 

 in single rows at about 3 ft. 6 in. apart; no " beds " of the private-garden 

 type are to be seen, and double rows which were rather plentiful upwards 

 of sixteen years ago are now difficult to discover. No special preparation 

 of the soil is made, or required, for this crop. Sometimes the seed is sown 

 where the plants are to remain; by this procedure a little time is saved. 

 But more commonly young plants, one year old, are taken from the seed 

 bed and planted in rows as stated, and at 18 to 24 in. apart in the rows. 

 It is not generally known that much depends upon the care exercised in 

 the selection of the young plants to be planted permanently; and in this 

 respect the men of Evesham are not in advance of good Asparagus culti- 

 vators elsewhere. The seedling plant varies in character, and whatsoever 

 its character in infancy, that it retains to maturity and senility. In other 

 words, it is the nature of some young Asparagus plants to produce numerous 

 but thin shoots, and they will always retain that nature no matter how 

 cultivated. Other young Asparagus plants, from the same seed-bed, produce 

 fewer but strong or thick shoots, and this they will do to the end of their 

 days, other conditions being equal. Therefore, in order to have a crop of 

 large Asparagus the main thing is to select and plant only those seedlings 

 which produce few and strong shoots even as seedlings; but if a good 



