CHAPTER XIII. 

 ASPARAGUS. 



ASPARAGUS Asparagus Officinalis. 



French, asperge; German, spargel ; Flemish and Dutch, aspersie; Danish, 

 asparges; Italian, sparagio; Spanish, esparrago; Portuguese, espargo. 



Asparagus is a leading winter vegetable in California and is 

 produced as a field crop for local sale, for canning, and for eastern 

 shipment. It is not grown, however, as a garden crop for home 

 use as widely as it should be. This is probably to be accounted for 

 in part by the fact that in nearly all towns it can be cheaply bought 

 during the winter and spring: in part, also, to an exaggerated no- 

 tion of the difficulty of making and caring for an asparagus bed. 

 On the drier lands of the interior, even with irrigation, it is apt 

 to be stringy and tough, but on interior, moist lowlands, it is grand 

 and is largely grown on such lands both for canning and shipment 

 fresh. In almost all parts of the state it is not difficult for the at- 

 tentive gardener to secure crop and quality which will amply repay 

 his efforts. Regions open to coast influences either directly or 

 through gaps in the Coast Range, or regions where atmospheric 

 humidity is increased somewhat by evaporation from moist soil or 

 wide water surface, as is the case in interior river bottoms, have 

 superior conditions for the growth of the plant which is maritime 

 in its origin and nature. On the peat lands of Orange county 

 asparagus established itself as an escape from cultivation and it is 

 stated that this demonstration of its choice of situation suggested 

 the larger plantings for distant shipment which have been made. 



Soil. The low peat lands of Orange county just mentioned 

 are composed of vegetable debris intermixed with sand, and are 

 very loose and penetrable in their texture. They are also under- 

 laid by impervious strata at considerable depth, which holds water 

 within reach of the plant roots. Similar soil and moisture condi- 

 tions are found in the reclaimed lands of the Sacramento and San 

 Joaqum deltas. In both these regions, though five hundred miles 



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