ASPARAGUS CULTURE, 



BY 



M. GODEFKOY-LEBCEUF. 



Varieties of Asparagus.— Originally there was but one 

 form of edible Asparagus, the wild Asparagus (Asparagus 

 officinalis), from which have sprung the common garden 

 Asparagus and the Giant Asparagus. The former gave rise 

 to the Early Pink Asparagus grown in Holland, at Ulm, and 

 at Argenteuil, and the Late Pink Asparagus grown at the 

 same places. Culture and selection have so great an influence 

 on vegetables that they modify not only their constitution, but 

 their mode of growth and their 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 crops % This 



