108 
May, 1389. 
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/OR CHARD 
Growing A «.pa ragn s for Home llse. 
Some persons are deterred from planting 
asparagus in their gardens under the im- 
pression that it is difficult to grow and re- 
quires a long time to come into use. Oth- 
ers have taken a dislike to it because the 
only asparagus they have seen is the bleach- 
ed goose-quill sort, generally served up at 
hotels. City people get in the habit of see- 
ing things in a certain shape and it is hard 
to persuade them that another shape is bet 
ter. They buy white asparagus because 
they are ignorant of the superiority of the 
green and tender. But fashion is rapidly 
changing in this respect and there are more 
and more people every year who pass by 
bleached asparagus and take that which is 
green. The writer was raised by the shores 
of the Chesapeake, where “high-water mark” 
on every estuary is defined by rows of wild 
asparagus. This wild asparagus was the 
only sort we used, and, in everything ex- 
cept size, is superior to the cultivated arti- 
cle. In gathering the wild asparagus we 
did not cut it, but merely snapped off the 
tender and brittle part leaving the tough 
lower part of the stalk. As I grew older 
and had a chance to test city hotel aspara- 
gus I often wondered what induced people 
to eat, or try to eat, such stuff, when the 
green part was so much superior. When 
I got to growing the plant for market!)I be- 
came convinced that we who sought tojsup- 
ply an early northern demand were making 
a mistake in putting the roots so deep un- 
der ground, where they were slower in feel- 
ing the influence of the spring sun and there 
fore later. Intending to plant a large patch 
about the time that Conover’s Colossal was 
introduced I purchased 30,000 roots of this 
variety from a nurseryman only fifty miles 
away from me. The roots came packed in 
a large bulk and were heated and mouldy, 
but in my absence were planted. Out of the 
30,000 not a dozen ever grew. As the roots 
cost then §10 per 1000 I had §300 worth of 
experience in getting roots from a nursery. 
Since then I have noticed that both with 
my own packing and that of others there 
is no root more liable to spoil in transit. An 
experiment made nearly twenty years ago 
in growing asparagus close to the surface 
of the ground, where it feels the first breath 
of spring, satisfied me that this is the best 
way. I also found that I could get aspara- 
gus in marketable condition as quick or 
quicker from seed than by transplanting 
one or two year old roots. And the fact 
that I have sold good average asparagus one 
year from the sowing of the seed proves 
chis. 
If you are simply planting a bed for home 
use you can afford to make a deeper prep- 
eration of the soil than would pay on a larg- 
er scale. I would then thoroughly trench 
the soil and bury all the manure possible, 
and. if the soil is very tenacious, would haul 
sand upon it. Then sow the seed in a well 
prepared bed near by, and as soon as they 
are large enough to handle dibble them 
in rows on the prepared bed. Make the 
rows two feet apart and set the plants six 
inches apart. This will be too thick if all 
were finally left, but I take up three-fourths 
of the plants the second year and sell them 
to people who want to set the roots “to gain 
time.” In this way I once sold thousands 
of extra one year old roots and then sold as- 
paragus from what were left. The little 
plants need careful attention the fiist sum- 
mer. but there will seldom be one fail if 
properly transplanted. The subsequent cul- 
tivation consists in keeping the bed clean 
and giving it an annual coat of manure. 
Every third year apply Kainit (Potash salt) 
at the rate of a ton per acre. If you pre- 
fer, or your custom demands, the tough 
white asparagus, the young plants should 
be set in well enriched trenches like an old 
faslvoned celery trench. During the first 
summer gradually work the soil into the 
trench until it is brought to a level. Then 
The Globe artichoke. Fig. 838. 
treat in the same way as the bed plant- 
ed on the surface. 
We hear a great deal about the fine aspara- 
gus grown at Argenteuil in France, but if the 
French asparagus imported in tin cans is a 
fair sample, we do not care for it. Good cul- 
ture and plenty of manure will make 
any seedling asparagus colossal so I do not 
take any stock in “varieties” for if one 
plant varies from another it is extremely 
hard, if not impossible, to keep up a pure va- 
riety of a dioecious plant like asparagus. I 
have grown as good asparagus from seed 
gathered from the wild plants on the beach, 
as from any other. The “Giant” and “Co- 
lossal” sprouts come from the fatness of the 
soil in which they are grown. 
About BcaiiK. 
We have already spoken highly of the 
, new Dwarf Lima Bean. We did not speak 
by the catalogue, but by practical experi- 
ence, for it was grown here last year. Its 
chief merit, aside from its bush habit, is its 
earliness, and almost its only drawback 
the small size of the beans themselves. In 
quality they are not a whit behind the old 
sort, but are in fact rather better. Having 
secured the habit and the earliness, two im- 
portant points for Northern culture, our cul- 
tivators will not be long in gaining size 
for it. 
But after all, the climbing beans are not 
the bugbears now that they formerly were. 
We spoke in the March number of thegreat 
convenience of the galvanized wire netting 
in furnishing support for all these climbers 
in the garden. By its help the climbing 
beans can be grown easily and the un- 
sightly bean poles and pea brush abolished. 
And in many respects the climbing beans 
are of great advantage, especially in the 
matter of quality of crop and duration. One 
of the best of all beans, and a quite early 
one too, is the old Dutch Caseknife. With 
the shigle exception of the Lima weconsider 
it the best of all beans for shelling, and a 
most abundant cropper. We are a little old 
fogyish in our vegetable notions, and do not 
hastily abandon old friends that have served 
us long and well, though always re idy to 
welcome new comers that promise well. 
In addition to the variety above named 
there are a number of pole beans of more 
recent introduction which are admirable as 
“snaps” or “string” beans. Of these the 
Creaseback is the best green sort, and the 
old Giant Wax, the first introduced of the 
popular wax or yellow-podded sorts, is still 
as good as ever and not yet excelled by any 
of the new sorts we have tried. The Early 
Golden Cluster Wax, brought out this sea- 
son, we have not yet seen, but it is stated to 
be the earliest of all pole beans, and as good 
as the old Giant. 
Of the dwarf wax beans we have seen no 
reason to abandon the Golden Wax for any 
of the ne w comers, and it is our main reli 
ance for the earliest snap beans. Flageolet 
is a larger podded wax bean, a heavier crop- 
per, but is a little later than the Golden 
Wax and gets stringy, which is not the case 
with Golden Wax. For market purposes 
we would prefer it to the Golden Wax, as 
being more showy and productive. Of 
the green podded snap beans, we never use 
any but the Valentine. But it is important 
to be sure that you have the Valentine. We 
have had beans under this name, the seed 
of which were exactly like the true sort, 
but which were perfectly worthless. The 
selection known as “Henderson’s Earliest” 
is the pure Early Valentine without mix- 
ture and we can recommend it. 
A b»ut Melons. 
“M. M. H.” thinks that we have done in- 
justice to the Montreal Musk Melon in call- 
ing it unlit for family use. In a gardening 
experience extending over thirty years past 
we have found it to be almost an invariable 
rule that great increase of size in musk 
melons is accompanied by a corresponding 
decrease in flavor. A number of years ago 
we knew a market gardener who grew mel- 
ons for the Baltimore market, who always 
came in rather late in the season with a lot 
of immense “Cantaloupes” running from 18 
to 20 pounds each. He always sold them 
