November 19, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



557 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1890. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles:— The Cultivation of Asparagus in France, 



H. L. de ViUnorin. 557 



Popular Ignorance in Regard to Trees 55S 



Field Notes from the Colorado Desert C, R. Orcuft. 55R 



Lumbering in Michigan. (With illustration.) Professor IV. f. Beal. 559 



The Lakeside Daisy CM. Weed. 559 



Notes on the Plum Curcuho Professor J. B. Smith. 560 



New or Little Known Plants :— Solidago speciosa. (With figure.) 560 



Foreign Correspondence :— Berlin Letter Udo Damiuer. 560 



Cultural Department : — Early Chrysanthemums G. 562 



Notes from the Harvard Botanic Garden M. Bar/eer. 562 



Notes on Shrubs J. G. J. 563 



Quality in Apples T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 564 



Nematodes Again Professor Byron D. Halsted. 565 



The White-Flowered Perennial Pea E. O. O. 565 



Young Fruit-trees J. J. Thomas. 565 



Correspondence : — Some Early Wild Flowers E. H. Hitchings. 565 



Recent Publications 566 



Exhibitions : — The Boston Chrysanthemum Show B. 566 



The Autumn Exhibition in Philadelphia S 1 . 567 



Notes 568 



Illustrations :— Solidago speciosa, Fig. 74 561 



A Michigan Forest of the Present Day 563 



The Cultivation of Asparagus in France. 



IN no other special culture do the French surpass to such a 

 degree the rest of the world as in that of Asparagus. Not 

 only is the best Asparagus raised in France better than the 

 best of any other country, but the quality of the French 

 crop as found in the French markets, not only in Paris, 

 but all over the country, is far superior in quality to the 

 Asparagus sold in the markets of other countries. 



The excellence of French Asparagus is secured by the 

 most careful and systematic cultivation, and as the French 

 methods differ so materially from ours, especially in the 

 practice of allowing the crowns to freeze in winter, while 

 in this country it is an almost universal custom to protect 

 them by a heavy mulch of manure, and in the summer fer- 

 tilization of the plants, that we have asked Monsieur 

 Henri L. de Vilmorin, who speaks of French vegetables 

 and French methods of cultivation with the fullest knowl- 

 edge of the subject and the highest authority, to describe 

 for the benefit of our readers the methods by which the 

 best French Asparagus is produced. The following de- 

 scription from his pen will be read with interest by Ameri- 

 can gardeners : 



Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 

 To no subject can that old saying be more justly applied 

 than to Asparagus-growing, as not only is proper care a 

 necessary condition of success, but the superiority of well 

 grown to poorly grown produce is perhaps greater in the case 

 of Asparagus than in any other vegetable. Both the eating 

 quality and the market value of a bunch of Asparagus increase 

 very rapidly with the size and beauty of the individual shoots 

 that go to form it. 



Asparagus officinalis, a native of south-western Europe, is 

 perfectly hardy all through France and Great Britain, and will 

 prove so over nearly the whole of the United States, where, 

 with proper care, it should be possible to raise as fine speci- 

 mens as any that are grown in Europe. In fact, Asparagus 

 being a spring vegetable, the crop can be ready and even over 

 everywhere before the summer heat and drought set in. 



Planting the roots far apart and not too deep, and then ma- 

 nuring heavily and repeatedly, are the great points in the most 

 successful Asparagus-gardens in France; and these points are, 

 in my opinion, those that need to be brought most forcibly 

 before the American Asparagus-growers. 



Any soil which is not stiff, adhesive clay, nor pure, dry chalk, 

 can be rendered proper for Asparagus-culture by draining, 

 trenching and manuring. It is necessary that a depth of from 

 one foot to a foot and a half of perfectly drained soil be secured 

 under the surface, but this is amply sufficient, since Aspara- 

 gus develops no tap-roots. Light sandy soil is quite good if 

 properly manured. 



In France it is usual to trench and manure in the fall with 

 common stable-manure the plot which is to be planted out to 

 Asparagus in the spring. In very light soil cow-manure is pre- 

 ferred. In March the rows or beds are marked out, the posi- 

 tion of each set being indicated by a small stick placed in the 

 ground. One or two-year-old seedlings are generally used as 

 sets. They are never planted at a less distance than two feet 

 each way. For exhibition purposes plants are set three and 

 even four feet apart. 



At the place where each little stick stood a small conical 

 heap of compost or mould from thoroughly decomposed ma- 

 nure is made, and the centre of the crown of the set is placed 

 on top of it, the fleshy roots being spread, radiating in all di- 

 rections down the sides of the small hill. The roots are then 

 covered with additional compost or mould, one or two large 

 handfuls being used on each set ; the roots only, and not the 

 crown, being so covered, the hills are made larger, but not 

 higher, by the process. Loose soil is then filled in between 

 the hills and level with the crowns of the sets. This soil has 

 been prepared by scraping the surface of the beds three to 

 four inches deep before marking out the place for the sets 

 and by heaping the loose soil in the walks between the beds 

 or the rows. 



After the first summer and fall, when only weeding, and, 

 perhaps rarely, watering has to be done, the surface soil is 

 in the month of October scraped off between the plants and 

 made into a ridge in the walks, as was done before planting. 

 The roots are by this means brought close to the surface arid 

 submitted to the action of cold air and frost, which, at least in 

 Europe, seem to benefit them rather than otherwise. Only 

 experience can show whether the same system would be 

 equally advisable for America, where the winters are so much 

 colder. 



Manure is spread the second spring on the roots mostly in 

 the shape of mould from town scrapings or from decomposed 

 stable manure. Common salt may be added with good re- 

 sults in places where it is deficient in the soil. Then the loose 

 soil is again filled in on top of the manure and between the 

 plants so as to make the surface even. 



The next year the same processes are repeated, but the 

 loose soil is heaped to a greater height, in a conical hill one 

 foot high, over each Asparagus plant, as from this, the third 

 spring, one or two shoots can becutfrom each well-established 

 plant. The hill formed on top of the crown is intended to 

 bleach the shoots and to force them to become longer. After 

 the cutting season is over (which should be about May 15th 

 on the year of the maiden crop and June 15th on succeeding 

 years) the mounds of soil are to a great extent scattered and 

 spread in between the plants, all the shoots produced later 

 being allowed to grow and develop into leafed stems. 



Afterward the routine of the cultivation remains the same, 

 manure being added at least every second year, and either 

 in the fall, in winter or in early spring, in fact at any period be- 

 tween the time when the surface soil is scraped out and the 

 time for spreading it on again. The number and beauty of 

 the shoots go on increasing for the three or four first crop 

 years, and then the plantation can be kept at its best for five or 

 six years more by liberal and repeated manuring. 



Great care is exercised now, in France, ingathering Aspara- 

 gus-shoots to break them clean at the point of insertion on the 

 crown, and not to cut or saw them off. The latter practice 

 bad the two-fold fault of leaving on the plant old stumps which 

 decayed and often induced rotting of the crown itself, and be- 

 sides it frequently occurred that undeveloped or partially devel- 

 oped buds were injured by the knife and destroyed. At the 

 present day the most approved practice consists in throwing 

 back with one hand the soil of the hill, while holding the shoot 

 with the other hand and in following it down to its base, when it 

 is easily broken off clean by bending it on the side on which 

 it was laid bare. The hill is then immediately formed again 

 as before. 



All this care and labor might justly be considered excessive 

 were 200 or 300 shoots required to make, a decent dish, but 

 the) r can well be afforded where fifty make a very large one. 



The taste for almost white asparagus, with only one inch or 

 so of purplish top, is prevalent in France, but the shoots may 

 be allowed to grow a little longer and greener when they are 

 preferred so. 



