ASPARAGUS CULTURL 

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M, GODEFEOT-LEBCEUF. 



Varieties of Asparagos. — Qriginally there waa but on e 

 form of edible Aaparagu s, the wild Asparagus (Aaparagn a 

 officinalia). from which have sprun g the co mmon garde n 

 ^paragus and the Giant Asparag us. i.tie l ormer gave n so 

 t o the Early Pink Asparagus grown in HoUand, at ulm, and 

 af Argenteuil, a nd tlie Liate Pink A sparagus grown at the- 

 same places. Culture and selection hav6 Sd great an influence 

 on vegetables that they modify not only their constitution, but 

 their mode of growth and tiieir flavour. It is by dint of 

 constant observation, combined with great care and patience, 

 that the Asparagus growers at Argenteuil have succeeded in 

 improving this vegetable by creating, as it were, two varie- 

 ties, the Early and the Late, and that they have rendered 

 those varieties permanent, so that they may always be de- 

 pended on as being superior to their common parent both 

 in size and quality. Asparagus is grown throughout the 

 whole of France with almost equal care. How is it, then, 

 that there are only certain^ privileged localities which produce 

 it in such perfection in every way that even after twenty 

 years' growth the same plants yield abundant cropb t This 



