CHAPTER XVI. 



Asparagus Culture in France. 



[SPARAGUS is grown much more abundantly and to a 

 much larger size in France than it is in England. The 

 country is half covered with it in some places near Paris ; 

 small and large farmers grow it abundantly, cottagers grow it 

 everybody grows it, and everybody eats it. Near Paris it is chiefly 

 grown in the valley of Montmorency and at Argenteuil, and it is 

 cultivated extensively for market in many other places. About 

 Argenteuil 3000 persons are employed in the culture of asparagus 

 at least so my informant told me, and he is the son of the 

 cultivator who has taken the best prizes for asparagus at the Ex- 

 hibition. His father not being at home, I traversed a considerable 

 portion of what may be termed the region of asparagus with this 

 youth, who was of the intelligent type, and understood all about 

 this dainty vegetable. We first saw it growing to a large extent 

 among the vines. The vine under field culture, I need scarcely 

 say, is simply cut down to near the old stool every year, and allowed 

 to make a few growths, which are tied erect to a stick : they do 

 not overtop the asparagus in any way, but on the other hand the 

 strong plants of that showed well above the vines. It was not in 

 distinct close lines among the vines, but widely and irregularly sepa- 

 rated, say six or seven feet apart in the rows, and as much or more 

 the other way. They simply put one plant in each open spot, and 

 give it every chance of forming a capital specimen, and this it 



