Asparagus Culture in France. 225 



generally does. The great " stools" appear to be irregularly scat- 

 tered about here and there. When they get large and a little top- 

 heavy in early summer, a string is put round all, so as to hold 

 them slightly together (the careful cultivator uses a stake), and the 

 mutual support thus given prevents the "grass" from being cut off 

 in its prime. We all know how apt it is to be twisted off at the 

 collar by strong winds, especially in wet weather, when the drops 

 on every tiny leaf make the foliage heavy. The growing of asparagus 

 among the vines is a very usual mode, and a vast space is thus 

 covered with it about here. But it is grown in other and more 

 special ways, though not one like our way of growing it, which 

 is decidedly much inferior to the French method. Perhaps the 

 simplest and most worthy of adoption is to grow it in shallow 

 trenches. I have seen extensive plantings that looked much as a 

 celery ground does soon after being planted, the young asparagus 

 plants being in a shallow trench, and the little ridge of soil being 

 thrown up between each. These trenches are generally about four 

 feet apart. The soil is rather a stiff sandy loam with calcareous 

 matter in some parts, but I do not think the soil has all to do with 

 the peculiar excellence of the vegetable, and am certain that soils 

 on which it would flourish equally well are far from uncommon 

 in England. It is the careful attention to the wants of the plant 

 that is so beneficial. Here, for instance, is a young plantation 

 planted in March, and from the little ridges of soil between each 

 shallow trench they have just dug a crop of small early potatoes. 

 Now, in England, those plants would be left to the free action of 

 the breeze, but the French cultivators — like the old Scotchwoman 

 who would not trust the stormy water and God's goodness as long 

 as there was a bridge in Stirling — never leave a young plant of 

 asparagus to the wind's mercy as long as they can get hold of a bit 

 of oak about a yard long. But when staking these young plants 

 they do not insert the support close at the bottom, as we are too 

 apt to do in other instances, but at a little distance off, so as to 

 avoid the possibility of injuring a fibre ; and thus each stake leans 

 over its plant at an angle of 45°, and when the sapling is big enough 



