56 



ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



Again if two or three seeds come up side by side it- is very 

 difficult to thin them out, there generally being two left 

 behind which give rise to a couple of stools, which will cer- 

 tainly interfere with each other's growth, and will only yield 

 a poor and uncertain crop. By adopting the transplantation 

 system we need only use the choicest plants we can get, 

 which is after all the easiest and cheapest way of obtaining 

 fine and profitable crops. The difference between a planta- 

 tion formed from seed and one made by transplanting the 

 stools is very great, and is so much in favour of the modern 

 system that it can be only ignorance of the results obtained 

 by it that can account for the old-fashioned method being 

 adopted. We have seen even at Argenteuil plantations formed 

 from seed, but with all the care that it is possible to bestow 

 on them *they produce exceedingly irregular crops, so much 

 so that they yield less than half the quantity given by the 

 planted beds; The defects of the old system are so apparent 

 that we need not have recourse to any facts in proof of 

 them. 



Utility of Earthing up.— We have often been asked to 

 explain the part played by the mounds of earth beneath 

 which the stools are buried at a certain time of the year- 

 Earthing up allows us to plant the Asparagus stool less deeply, 

 so that it has all the benefit of the manure, the rains, and the 

 spring sun. It also allows us to shelter the heads from the 

 influence of the atmosphere and the light, so that they do 

 not turn green and hard, but remain white and tender, besides 

 growing much longer. Another advantage gained by earthing 

 up is to prevent all danger from the late spring frosts, the 

 young shoots being so well covered up that they experience 

 no injury. In certain localities people have not yet learned 

 to distinguish the difference between blanched and green, and 

 many affect to prefer the latter. This vulgar error cannot be 

 too quickly extirpated in the interests of all true lovers of 

 this delicious vegetable. In the case of the green Asparagus 

 it is only the tip of the shoot that is eatable, whereas the 

 blanched Asparagus can be nearly all eaten, besides which it 



