The Delectable Esculent! 
Louise S. Hubbard 
I inherited a deep interest in Asparagus from an uncle who grew 
hundreds of acres of it in the Sacramento Valley. I acquired an 
insatiable appetite for it as a child in Argenteuil, insatiable indeed, 
because I cannot remember that even there I ever had enough ; but it 
was the article in Bailey's Encyclopedia that determined me to gather 
together all the information I could find on the history, cultivation, 
and I might say the human interest of asparagus. 
If, as Mr. Bailey says, "asparagus is a rugged plant that will 
thrive in any soil," and that when it grows where you don't want it 
"will form such a network of roots that all the strength of a good team 
wiU be insufficient to pull it out," why has my own suburban bed 
failed to produce so lavishly that I must still resort to the shameful 
practice of supplementing each dish with a bunch from the huckster? 
If (again I quote Mr. Bailey) ''one may find thrifty plants along the 
fence rows, or strong stalks pushing up through stone heaps," why 
is there no inspired Johnny-Appleseed who wiU dedicate his wander- 
ings to asparagus? For many years all authorities, including the 
Department of Agriculture, have urged the planting of asparagus, and 
assured the grower of great financial returns, yet there is so Httle in 
the market that I must pay as much for a mess of asparagus in season 
as for green peas in January. 
Aside from such obvious and elementary directions as that it 
should not be planted in standing water, and that it should be kept 
free from weeds, I can find only one point on which all authorities are 
in complete and emphatic agreement, and that is that the planting 
of one-year-old roots is more profitable than the planting of roots of 
any other age. In the most complete work on asparagus to which I 
have had access, a monograph by Leboeuf, the greatest emphasis is 
laid on this point: "Though of course one would choose the larger and 
thriftier plants, it has been proved over and over again that the smaller 
and weaker of the one-year-old plants set in the beds with the best 
possible two-year-old plants will in three years' time have far out- 
stripped the two-year-old plants in vigor, size of sprouts and produc- 
tiveness." The following experiment was made by Leboeuf : Twelve 
plants each of one, two, and three-year-old plants were planted side 
by side in the same soil, and given the same treatment; at the end of 
three years they yielded as follows: from the three-year-old roots, 
2^ pounds; from the two-year-old plants, 3^ pounds, and from the 
one-year-old plants, 7 pounds. Or, to put it otherwise, at the first 
cutting, or three years after being set in the permanent bed, plants 
that were one year old when set out yielded twice as much as plants 
that were two years old when set out, and nearly three times as much 
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