14 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



You know how common is the practice of purchasing something 

 better than the home garden produces when the occurrence of a 

 dinner party renders it necessary to adorn the table with hand- 

 some grass in some degree of plenty. A better growth is 

 here in straws 6 feet high and H inch in circumference at 

 the base, indicating a supply of heads in spring such as we 

 should describe as handsome and altogether desirable for the 

 table, both for size and quality, without running to an extreme. 

 But an extreme case is as likely to prove instructive as a poor 

 one. Here, then, I invite you to admire a growth running to 

 7 feet 6 inches, the circumference of these straws at the base 

 being inches. This we will call " giant " Asparagus, for the 

 heads will often surpass in thickness that of a big man's thumb, 

 which I suppose does not often exceed 3 inches in circumference. 

 This giant growth is the produce of a fertile soil containing a 

 notable proportion of calcareous salts ; and it equals the gigantic 

 growth of Argenteuil, which, I beg you to observe, has the 

 advantage of a calcareous soil on which the Grape-vine thrives, 

 for the Asparagus is grown there on the same ground as the 

 vineyard Grapes. I am fully satisfied that the extravagant 

 manuring practised in the cultivation of Asparagus is in very many 

 instances extravagant waste, for the plant is thereby supplied 

 with but a little of what it requires, and very much of what it 

 does not require. Lime and silica are primary requirements, 

 and the alkalies and nitrates supplied in ordinary manures are 

 certainly required in liberal proportions, but are very often 

 provided in excess, for, the lime being deficient, it is impossible 

 for the plant to appropriate all the possible food within its 

 reach. 



The taking of the produce is a most important matter. The 

 practice that prevails is to cut all that rises, including fat shoots 

 for the table and lean sprue for the soup-tureen. It is a destruc- 

 tive practice— a killing of the goose for the golden eggs. The 

 plant endures it, and repairs itself from July until the chill of 

 autumn stops the growth ; but under such treatment it never 

 attains to its full vigour and luxuriance ; it is a puny thing, 

 making shoots like skewers for the table, and green tops as weak 

 as fennel and less majestic for its own use, when the destructive 

 process comes to an end. 



It wa i the rule in the culture I am describing to cut only 



