Chap. XXVIL] ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 471 



and English books, but one is confidentially told by the growers 

 that they are only fitted for amateurs who do not care to soil their 

 fingers. The cultivators here never use a knife. Each crown or 

 root IS covered with a little mound of loose earth ; through the 

 top of this the tips of the strong, thick shoots are seen appearing. 

 In the light the young shoot first assumes a delicate rose-purple 

 hue. For gathering it is not enough for the shoot to be visible 

 on the surface ; it must be one inch above it, so as to show the 

 shghtly-rosy tip. Gatherings are made every second day about 

 the end of April, but in May, when the growth is more active, 

 the stools are gathered from every day. Given a shoot emerging 

 from the earth ready to gather: the slightly-hardened crust 

 around the emerging bud and on top of the little mound is pushed 

 aside, the fore and middle finger separated are then thrust deeply 

 into the soft mould, pushing the earth outwards. If a rising 

 shoot be met with on the way down, it is carefully avoided. A 

 second plunge of the two fingers and pushing out of the earth 

 -usually brings them to the hardened ground about the crest of the 

 root ; the forefinger is then slipped behind the base of the shoot 

 fit to gather, and pushed gently outwards, when the shoot at once 

 snaps clean off at its base. This plan has the advantages of 

 leaving no mutilated shoots or decaying matter in the ground. 



Once gathered, care is taken that the shoot is not exposed to 

 the light, but placed at once in a covered basket. As soon as the 

 stalk is gathered, the earth is loosely and gently raked up with 

 the hand so as to leave the surface of the mound as it was before, 

 not pressing the earth in any way, but keeping it quite free. 

 The shoots are not rubbed or cleaned in any way — it would dis- 

 figure them, and they do not require it. Asparagus in a green 

 state is only cut here for soup, etc., and for that only inferior 

 shoots. We sometimes see observations as to the great superiority 

 of the green-cut Asparagus over that blanched in the above 

 manner ; but they are invariably written by persons who know 

 the ordinary green form only, or the withered blanched stalks 

 eaten long after being gathered. But those who know what good 

 Asparagus really is — and we speak now of good judges in Covent 

 Garden as well as in France — know well that in flavour green 

 and properly-blanched Asparagus are very different things, and 

 that the blanched is the better and more delicate. Let us on the 



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