1 8 THE BOOK OF ASPARAGUS 



look at the illustrations showing one-year, two-year, and 

 three-year-old plants. It at once appears to one's reason 

 that the roots shown therein require a very long run, 

 and as the principal feeding roots, or the portions which 

 take up the most nourishment from the soil, are those at 

 the very end, these roots are seen to travel a great 

 distance. On the day on which I write, I, with one 

 of my assistants, took up the three-year-old plant shown 

 in the drawing, and found roots two and a half feet from 

 the crown of the plant entangled with its neighbour's 

 roots, and I even had to break them off because of the 

 entanglement. Why not treat these plants individually 

 in the same way as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or even 

 gooseberry trees are treated ? Asparagus roots, if 

 properly cared for, will run farther than any of these, 

 and we all know what would happen were we to plant 

 either of the plants named a foot or eighteen inches from 

 crown to crown. 



The French give their plants a space of three to four 

 feet a-piece, and wisely so, for we all know that large 

 asparagus commands the highest prices in the markets. 

 If the soil where the plants are to be placed be wet, it 

 must be drained. If it be so low that it cannot be 

 drained, it is no earthly use to expect good results, but 

 if the ground be wet though not water-logged, have 

 each plant raised on a little hillock, and we shall have 

 all the advantage of the bed system. Of course it might 

 be urged that there would on this method be no alley. 

 That is one of its advantages, for when one bears in 

 mind that in order to keep an alley defined the plants on 

 either side, viz., the outside plants, must have their 

 roots annually shaved off with the spade — of all methods 

 the most barbarous. I .have practised this savage rite 

 myself when, as a pupil, it was my function to execute 

 the orders of others rather than to think out practice for 

 myself. 



