178 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



tioned are composed of vegetable debris intermixed with 

 sand, and are very loose and penetrable in their mixture. 

 They are also underlaid by impervious strata at consid- 

 erable depth, which holds water within reach of the plant 

 roots. Similar soil and moisture conditions are found in 

 the reclaimed lands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 deltas where the greatest production and the largest as- 

 paragus canneries are to be found. In both these regions, 

 though 500 miles distant from each other, the conditions 

 of soil, moisture, and heat are comparable and so are the 

 growers' results. But it is not essential that just these 

 conditions prevail. In the Santa Clara valley, in the Sac- 

 ramento valley, and elsewhere deep, alluvial soils without 

 any great amount of vegetable debris have for many years 

 furnished large quantities to the markets. Any deep, 

 rich sandy loam, moist enough to give a winter and spring 

 crop and a summer growth of foliage to reinforce the 

 roots, will grow good crops of asparagus for years with 

 proper cultivation, generous manuring, and occasional 

 salting. Soils which are too wet or too dry or too heavy 

 to allow free growth, yield inferior shoots, tough, stringy, 

 or bitter as the case may be. Of course a heavy soil may 

 be improved for a garden bed of asparagus by free use of 

 sand and manure well worked through it, but commercial 

 plantings should only be made on naturally fit soils. 



Growing the Plants. Asparagus grows readily from 

 seed and in this State well-grown yearling roots are used 

 for planting out in preference to older ones. The house 

 gardener can, therefore, save a year 's time by buying roots 

 from the seedsmen, but for the large plantation the 

 grower will usually grow his own plants. This can be 

 done in the open air ; adequate moisture and a light, fine 

 soil will insure success the first year if the seed is grown 

 early enough to get the benefit of a full season's growth. 



A light, coarse soil which may be excellent for the after 

 growth of, the roots, is not so good for starting the seed- 

 lings because of danger of surface drying. A mixture of 

 fine sediment will improve a coarse soil for this purpose. 



