THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[January, 



various species appear in the spring, and at 

 dittiprent periods during the summer, and we are 

 quite confident that «-e noticed tliem and made 

 bates of thtm "to catch tlie little fishes" 

 more than fitty years ago ; and we even at 

 that early period noticed their second trans- 

 formations and exuvia or cast-off skins. The 

 Bank Swallows along the Susquehanna fared 

 sumptuously on these May-flies in their brief 

 Season. Although highly organized, they are 

 rather delicate in their structure, feeble or 

 sluggish in tlight, and during their brief imago 

 period do not partake of any food ; indeed, 

 although it is clear that they do to a great ex- 

 tent live on small aquatic animals, and have 

 a mouth organized for that purpose while they 

 are larirF^ yet in the mature state the mouth 

 is only rudimental or obsolete, and they have 

 not the power, if they even had the will, to 

 appropriate any kind of food. We see them 

 yet, in rows like soldiers, on the fence rails 

 ak>ng the Susquehanna, the Cliiques and the 

 Conestoga. 



When they first evolve from the pupa and 

 pseudo-pupa state they are^ usually, or nearly 

 white, but they finally change to darker col- 

 ors, from a sulphur yellow to a reddish brown, 

 according to the species. The wings become 

 hyaline or purple tinted. The two fore-feet 

 usually project in fi'ont of the body, some- 

 times raised upward at the ends, and the 

 wings are closely held back to back, and 

 nearly perjiendicular. They are further usu- 

 ally distinguished by two or three long hair- 

 like filaments at the'hind end of the body, and 

 the eyes are proportionately large, and of a 

 golden or coppery lustre. The geiuis Ephe- 

 mera is the type of the now extensive family 

 EpHEMERADiE, to wliicli bcloug many genera 

 and species. Perhaps tlie most common ex- 

 ample of these insects along our waters is the 

 " two-tailed May-fly," called in some locali- 

 ties in the West the "Mormon-fly" (Palin- 

 fjenia bilineata of Say). Before their brief 

 lamp of life is extinguished, the females de- 

 posit their eggs in the water, and from these 

 subsequent broods are reared. Their use in 

 the economy of nature is probably solely to 

 furnish food for the lugher orders of animals, 

 especially fishes and birds. 



OUR CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



No. 4. — Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis). 



This delicious vegetable is sujiiwsed to have 

 come into use as food about two hundred years 

 before the Christian era ; its excellent qualtics 

 are said to have been made known by that 

 most distinguished and ancient writer on agri- 

 culture, the elder Cato ; he has treated no sub- 

 ject with greater care, the last chapter of his 

 great work being devoted to this vegetable. It 

 appears to have been known to the ancients as 

 growing wild, under the name of Uorruda. 

 Cato advised the sowing of the seed of this 

 plant in the beds of the Vinedresser's reeds, 

 which are cultivated in Italy for the support 

 of the vines ; and they should be burnt in the 

 spring of the third year, as the ashes would 

 act as a maimre to the future crops. He also 

 recommends that the plants be renewed after 

 eight or nine years. AtheniPu.s, who wrote 

 about the third century, tells that this plant 

 was divided into two varieties, the mountain 

 and the marsh ; and that in some parts of 

 Lybia they attained the thickness of a Cyprian 

 reed, and were several feet in height; he also 

 informs us that the plant was used as a remedy 

 in all diseases. But Diphilus, a physician, 

 who lived and wrote about the same time, and 

 the author of a work "On Diet fit for persons 

 in Good and Bad Health," declares that as- 

 paragus, was very hurtful to the sight. Pliny 

 states that asparagus, which formerly grew 

 wild, so that every man might gather it, was in 

 his time carefully cherished in gardens, particu- 

 larly at Raveima, where the cultivated plant 

 was so large that three heads would weigh a 

 pound, and were sold for an «.s (about three 

 farthings); but, according to Martial, those 

 grown at Ravenna were no better than the 

 wild. 



Tlie Roman cooks used to choose the finest 

 heads of this vegetable and dry them ; and 

 when wanted for the table, put tliem into hot 

 water and let them boil quickly for a few 

 minutes; hence the proverb, "Doit quicker 

 than you can cook asparagus," — when any- 

 thing was required in haste. Suetonius in- 

 forms us in his "Life of Augustus," that this 

 was a favorite expression of that emperor, 

 when he wished that any affair might be con- 

 cluded without delay. Pliny states that the 

 uncultivated kinds grew upon the mountains in 

 ditierent countries, and that the plains of 

 Tipi)er Germany are full it. Juvenal, in a 

 description of a dinner given to a friend, men- 

 tions the mountain asparagus : 



" Asparaijus, l)e6iiles, 

 Pickled by my bailifl's plain but cleanly bride, 

 Who, wlien the wheel's domestic task is o'er, 

 Culls from the hills my vegetable store." 



It w-as believed by the ancients that if a per- 

 son anointed himself with a liniment made 

 of asparagus and oil, the bees would not ap- 

 l)roach or sting him. They also had another 

 absurd idea, that pounded rams' horns buried 

 in the ground would produce this vegetable. 



We cannot trace the cultivation of asparagus 

 in England; it is evidently indigenous to the 

 country, for Gerard states that the manured or 

 garden asparagus, which comesupof thesizeof 

 the largest swans' quills, is the same as the wild, 

 but, like other vegetables, is made larger by 

 cultivation. The wild, he .says, is "found in 

 Essex, in the meadows adjoining a mill be- 

 yond a village called Thorpe, and also at Sin- 

 gleton, not far from Curbie, and in the mead- 

 ows about Moulton, in Lincolnshire ; likewise 

 itgroweth in great plenty near unto Harwich." 

 The same author informs us that in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time it was sodden in flesh-broth, 

 or boiled in fair water and seasoned with oil, 

 vinegar, salt and pepper, then served at men's 

 tables for salad. Evelyn, in his " Acetoria " 

 (1099) says, "that next to flesh, nothing is so 

 nourishing as asparagus ; it was sometimes 

 eaten raw with oil and vinegar, but v,ns more 

 delicate if speedily boiled, so as not to lose its 

 color." He tells us he did not think the large 

 Dutch kind, "which was raised in high manured 

 beds, so sweet and agreeable as those of mod- 

 erate size, and yet to show what sohim, ccclum, 

 and industry will efl'ect, the honorable and 

 learned Charles Hutton made my wife a pres- 

 ent of sixteen asparagus, the whole bundle 

 containing only sixty ; weight 15^ pounds. So 

 allowing four ounces to each asparagus, one 

 was as nmch as one would desire to eat, and 

 what was most observable, they were not 

 raised or forced by any extraordinary compast 

 but grown in a more natural, sweet, rich and 

 well cultivated soil about Battersea. " Miller, 

 in his "dictionary, "states that a friend of his 

 procured some seed of the wild kind, which he 

 cultivated with great care in very rich ground, 

 yet could not get the roots to produce a stem 

 more than half the size of the garden kind 

 which grew on the same bed, but he always 

 found the wild sort come up ten days or a 

 week earlier in the spring, and that the shoots 

 were exceedingly sweet. Leonard Meager, in 

 his "English Gardener," published in 1083, 

 informs us, that in his time the London mar- 

 ket was well su|iplied with forced asparagus ; 

 the means employed were by placing the roots 

 on warm manure beds. Battersea, Mortlake 

 and Deptford used to be the jirincipal locali- 

 ties from which the metropolis was sui)plied ; 

 Mortlake alone, at one time, had more than a 

 lumdred acres under this crop, and a Mr. 

 Grayson, of that place, once produced a hun- 

 dred heads that weighed 42 pounds. There 

 are accounts of some very large heads of this 

 vegetable being produced on some parts of the 

 continent; thus, we read in Keysler's "Trav- 

 els," that at Danustadt, in 1730, some large 

 asparagus heads were grown, some of which 

 weighed half a pound ; some hundreds of these 

 heads were sent as a present to the Elector 

 Palatine. 



The asparagus trade in France is becoming 

 of more importance every year. The princiiial 

 place of its culture near Paris is Argenteuil, 

 from which place in 1820 about five thousand 



bundles were sent to the market, hut now the 

 product probably exceeds a million. -It is 

 grown to a very great size, the maximum at- 

 tained at the present time being eight inches 

 in circumference ; but a dish of such grass costs 

 from 4U to 50 francs. In the south of France 

 this vegetalile is frequently grown between the 

 vines. There was an asparagus-growing com- 

 pany started at Brunswick in 1809 ; several 

 hundred acres are devoted to this vegetable 

 and it bids fair to rival that of Argenteuil.' 

 This vegetable might be cultivated in England 

 with great success, in soils consisting of little 

 else than sea-sand, dressed annually with sea- 

 weed, on many spots on the coast that will 

 hardly produce any other vegetable. A few 

 years since a very large variety was introduced 

 from America tmder the name of "Conover's 

 colossal asparagus." 



The wild asparagus is found in many parts 

 of Europe where the soil is light, containing 

 an amount of salt, which appears to be neces- 

 sary for this plant. The salt steppes of Russia, 

 Mr. Loudon tel's us, are covered with it, and 

 horses and oxen eat it like grass. In England 

 it is found growing in Cornwall, MuUion 

 Island, near Lizard's Point, Kyname Core, 

 called Asjiaragus Island ; also on the western 

 and .southwestern coast. Among the various 

 virtues attributed to this plant is one given by 

 Antonie Mizold, in the seventh century, who 

 stat( s that if the root is put on a tooth that 

 aches violently it causes it to come out without 

 pain. The sprouts contain a peculiar crystal- 

 line substance called aqKiragine, which 'was 

 formerly used in medicine, but is not now re- 

 tained in the pharmacopia. Sometimes a de- 

 coctive is given as a diuretic in dropsies. 



Loudon states that the flower stalks of Orni- 

 thogalum are used in some parts of Glouces- 

 tershire, and sold in Bath under the name of 

 Prussian asparagus ; also the stalks of the 

 "salsify." The mid-rib of the beet is some- 

 times dressed as this vegetable, and the young 

 buds of the hop are said to be scarcely inferior 

 in taste. The tender shoots of the Typha, a 

 kind of reed, are eaten by the Cossaclfs like 

 asparagus. Under the general name of aspar- 

 gus the ancients were accustomed to class all 

 young sj>routs of vegetables which were used 

 in that state. The word is almost literally 

 Greek, signifying a young shoot before it un- 

 folds its leaves, as handed down to us by 

 Dioseorides. Gerard gives nearly the same 

 definition, but in English, he states, it is 

 called "sperage." Parkinson says our Eng- 

 lish writers "called asparagus 'sperage;' 

 when these names were vilely corrupted into 

 ')-par7Wt'-grass, ' and thence frittered dowii into 

 grass, I am unable to say." Batty Langly, 

 in "Principles of Gardening" (1728) says, 

 "the top of the bud is of the form of a spar- 

 row's bill and from thence vulgarly called 

 sparrow-grass." In low Dutch it is called 

 "coralcrunt," or Herhe caralli, coral-wort, in 

 respect to its berries, the seeds of which have 

 been recommended as a substitute for coffee. 

 The young plants gaown in pots make most 

 beautiful decorations for the room or dining- 

 table. — J/. G. Olusirpioolc, Svience Gossip, ISlo. 



We cannot inform our readers at what period 

 a.sparagus was introduced into the United 

 States, nor could such information be of any 

 material advantage to them at the present 

 time. It was not i)robably first introduced as 

 a culinary vegetable, but as something mainly 

 ornamental; at least, such is our earliest recol- 

 lection of it, which extends back a period of 

 about fifty years. It was then called "spar- 

 row-grass," and was used to decorate rooms 

 and objects on festal occasions, especially when 

 it was in its beautiful red and wax-like fruit. 

 Although a few stalks of it were grown in 

 many gardens, and the branches twined around 

 looking-glas.ses and picture frames as fly 

 screens during the summer season, yet we do 

 not know of its being very specially cultivated 

 for culinary purposes. During the last twen- 

 ty-five or thirty years, however, it has been 

 coming more and more into use, and is now 

 one of the cherished objects of the market 

 gardener. It is now so unlilve the original 

 wild plant from which it sprung, that no one 



