120 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



rake, which will destroy the germinating weeds. The 

 raking had better be continued at intervals of a week or 

 so, until the plants start to grow, when the hoe or hand- 

 cultivator may be applied between the rows and alleys ; 

 the weeds that come up close to the plant must of neces- 

 sity be pulled out by the hand. 



In the first edi tion of this work I gave it as my belief 

 that we had only one .variety of Asparagus, and that all 

 the so-called " Giant " and "Mammoth" varieties were 

 merely the results of superior soil or cultivation, which 

 on being propagated by seeds or otherwise, and placed in 

 ordinary conditions of culture, would fall back to their 

 original or normal condition ; in short, that the species 

 had never "broke," as we technically term it. 



This belief necessarily made me skeptical to the claims 

 of the " Colossal " when that variety was first introduced, 

 and I invariably replied to all inquirers that past ex- 

 perience in this matter led me to believe that it was no 

 different from the ordinary sort. 



I was finally invited to pay a visit to the farm- of Abra- 

 ham Van Siclen, of Jamaica, Long Island, and there to 

 inspect an acre of the Oyster Bay Asparagus (the ordinary 

 kind), and an acre of his " Colossal," which Mr. Van Siclen 

 had planted in the spring of 1868, each then one year old 

 from seed. A thorough inspection of the roots of each lot 

 proved that they were of the same age when planted. 

 The soil was next examined, and found to be as near the 

 same as it could well be, yet these two beds of Asparagus 

 showed a difference that left me no longer a shadow of a 

 doubt of their being entirely distinct varieties. In the 

 old variety we found no shoot thicker than one inch in 

 diameter and averaging twenty shoots to a hill, while in 

 the "Colossal" many shoots were found an inch and a 

 half in diameter, and averaging thirty-five shoots to a 

 hill an enormous growth, when it is remembered the 

 plant was only three years from the seed. 



