502 



ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



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 plant- 

 ings that looked much as a Celery gi'ound does soon after 

 being planted, the young Asparagus plants being in a shallow 

 trench, and a little ridge of soil being thrown up between 

 the lines of Asparagus. These trenches are generally about 

 four feet apart, sometimes less. 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 produces such a good result. Here, for instance, 

 is a young plantation planted in March, and from the little 

 ridges of soil between the shallow trenches they have just 

 dug a crop of small early Potatoes. Now, in England, 

 the Asparagus would be left to the free action of the breeze, 

 but the Ei'ench 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 whilst 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 in- 

 stances, but at a little distance off, so as to avoid the 

 possibility of injuring a fibre; each stake leans over its 

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

 to touch it or be caught by the wind, they tie it to the 

 stick as a matter of course. The ground in which this 

 system is pursued being entirely devoted to Asparagus, the 

 stools are placed very much closer together than they are 



