40 JOUEXAL OF THE KOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ASPARAGUS-RAISING, GROWING, AND FORCING. 
By Mr. George Noeman, F.R.H.S. 
[April 18, 1899.] 
The cultivation of Asparagus was understood by the Romans before the 
Christian era, and Cato, in the " De rerusticti," written about 2,000 years 
ago, gives instructions as to suitable ground and its preparation ; the 
distance apart to set the seed ; annual attention and manuring ; gathering 
the heads ; and after eight or nine years, when the plants have become 
old, the renewing of them. In fact, his instructions might be adopted 
successfully at the present day. 
In the first century a.d. Columella and Pliny both mention Asparagus ; 
the former says " that the young shoots were boiled and eaten by the 
Greeks." The latter says, " Of all garden plants, Asparagus is the one 
that requires the most delicate attention in its cultivation." 
In the sixteenth century Diodorus (1578 a.d.) describes two sorts : the 
garden, and the wild, called in shops "sparagus." 
Gerarde (1597) figures four varieties : (1) garden, the same as now 
cultivated ; (2) marsh ; (3) stone, or mountain ; (4) wild sperage, a 
prickly species. 
A long account of the cultivation of x\sparagus is given in a New 
System of Agriculture," by John Lawrence (1726 a.d.). 
Miller's " Gardener's Dictionary," in several editions of the eighteenth 
century, gives instructions for sowing and planting in beds, in much the 
same way as it is done at the present day. 
Abercrombie, another of the older writers of the last century, gives 
his views very fully on its cultivation, and since the time of these 
worthies, down to the present day, in most works on kitchen gardening, 
the subject has been extensively written upon, and the information given 
has been eagerly read by cultivators, as the mode of treatment carried 
out in most gardens has testified, by being almost uniform for many 
generations. It has always been much esteemed by those who have had 
the means of growing it, and the production of it of good quaUty has 
been a delight to gardeners in the past, as it will, I doubt not, continue 
to be in the future. 
Asparagus officinalis, the variety of our gardens, is a hardy perennial, 
and is supposed by Miller, Bentham, and others to be a native British 
plant. It is found growing on the south and west coasts of England, in 
the fens of Lincolnshire, and on the coast of Wexford and Waterford in 
Ireland. It is abundant in the maritime sands on the shores of the 
Mediterranean, and in many parts of Europe and Asia. It is found 
growing so near to the sea that in time of gales the sea breaks over it, 
deluging the soil with salt water, and these natural waterings demonstrate 
the necessity of salt in its cultivation, and the alluvial surroundings supply 
it with lime and nitrogen. The soil is generally of a silicious nature, 
and the situations are warm. 
The chief districts of England famous for growing Asparagus are 
