126 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



Any deep, rich sandy loam, moist enough to give a winter and 

 spring crop and a summer growth of foliage to reinforce the roots 

 and endure the California valley frosts, of which the plant is very 

 tolerant, 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 com- 

 mercial plantings should only be made on naturally fit soils. 



The Annual Product. The asparagus product is upwards of 

 1500 carloads a year of which San Joaquin and Contra Costa coun- 

 ties produce 900 ; Sacramento county 300 ; San Francisco bay region 

 200, and Imperial valley 100. Asparagus is the second in import- 

 ance of California canned vegetables second only to tomatoes, 

 as shown in Chapter I. About one-third of the product is canned, 

 one-third locally consumed as a fresh vegetable, and one-third 

 shipped fresh to eastern points.* 



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 seedlings because of danger of surface drying. 

 A mixture of fine sediment will improve a coarse soil for this pur- 

 pose. A very good way to get quick germination and large root 

 growth is to start the seed bed in February or March, as the soil 

 becomes warm : get good, fresh seed ; take boxes, say apple boxes, 

 or any boxes of about that size ; get good, clean sand, and mix sand 

 and seed together, about fifteen parts of sand to one part of seed; 

 fill the boxes with sand and seed mixed as described; set away in 

 a warm place and pour on water, quite warm, two or three times 

 during the first two days. 



In the meantime, prepare and richly pulverize a piece of ground 

 for a seed-bed. Make rows about four feet apart by raking all 

 lumps and clods away, forming a kind of ditch say two or three 

 inches below the level of the land. Make your ditches about one 

 foot wide, and watch the seed closely, for if the seed is good in 

 about seven days nearly all the seeds will begin to sprout. Then 

 take the boxes of sand and seed to the prepared ground and sprinkle 

 it in the rows or ditches quite freely, using judgment all the time 

 not to get too much or too little. Cover up with finely pulverized 



*The fullest account of the commercial aspects of California asparagus growing is given 

 in Bulletin 1 of the State Market Commission, San Francisco, 1916. 



