153 



hold of it, advancing the first finger and the thumb 

 to the root, and break it easily from the eye or the 

 joint of the root, which is immediately covered again 

 with the same earth. {Ibid. iii. 423.) 



Picking off the Berries. — From the stems that are 

 allowed to grow up, and of which it is the allotted 

 office to elaborate and store up organizable matter in 

 the roots ready for next year's growth, it is a good 

 practice either to pick off the berries, or, still better, 

 to rub off the blossom, as soon as it appears. Every 

 berry is formed at the expense of that organizable 

 matter, and consequently impairs the next year's pro- 

 ductiveness. 



Blanching the Shoots. — In some parts of France it 

 has been said that the shoots of Asparagus are im- 

 proved in size and quality by being inserted within 

 an inverted green-glass bottle, but this does not even 

 partially succeed in England, except when the Aspa- 

 ragus is grown in a hotbed. When forced, if the 

 light were totally excluded from a shoot, effects simi- 

 lar to those obtained in France would probably ensue, 

 for we find that in Ireland they insert tin tubes over 

 the heads, and thus obtain very fine ones. These 

 tubes, of course, neither have narrow necks nor 

 admit the light. {Gard. Chron. 1842, 471.) 



To obtain Seed. — Some shoots should be marked 

 and left in early spring ; for those which are allowed 

 to run up after the season of cutting is over, are sel- 



