May 26, 1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 415 
but not in flower, the temperatures were—maximum, 75° to 80° ; 
minimum, 45°. Mr. Simpson told me he gradually raised the 
temperature up to that period. The Muscat bunches that were 
set were crowded with berries, and this in a temperature 25° 
below what was advocated at one period. The saving of fuel 
alone, I was informed, was very considerable. I also noticed the 
houses were not so dry as one usually sees them when the Vines 
are in flower, as they are regularly syringed on bright afternoons 
during the flowering period, and the Vines were all in the best 
possible health.—G. S., Sandbecli Park. 
ASPARAGUS. 
I BELONG to what the trim and starched modern professors of 
gardening of the present day might describe as the partriarchal 
school of cultivators, and my views on Asparagus may not possibly 
be accepted by all readers. Such a hard-headed veteran as myself, 
who does not believe that the great Potato exhibitions have been 
of sirbstantial benefit, may fairly be regarded as “fossilised” from 
the point of view of the advanced order of beings who are ever 
thirsting for something new, and cannot rest if not engaged in 
revolutionising something or other. Yet, antiquated as my notions 
may possibly be deemed, I have yet a strong inclination to see 
and to grow garden produce, both flowers and vegetables, of the 
best quality. Flowers I conceive are grown to give pleasure to 
the eye and mind, vegetables to afford gratification to the palate 
and to afford sustenance to the body; therefore, however large 
and “ noble ” a Potato may be in appearance, if it is not of superior 
quality when cooked, I hold that ground and labour have been 
wasted in growing it; and if a dish of such tubers were to be 
awarded fifty prizes by the fanciers, the value of the variety 
would not be increased in my estimation. It would fail in the 
one great object for which Potatoes are required, and its charm is 
then gone for me. 
Asparagus, like Potatoes, is grown to be eaten, and in my 
experience excellence of quality should be the chief object of 
culture, because it is certainly the point most valued by all the 
consumers (and they have been both numerous and critical) that it 
has been my lot to provide for. If we produce heads of Aspa¬ 
ragus weighing half a pound, and yet only about an ounce and a 
half at the tips can be eaten, we are, I respectfully submit, like 
the man in the boat, progressing backwards, for w r e arc extracting 
a maximum amount of the soil’s most valuable constituents in the 
production of a minimum quantity of food, the bulk, or nearly 
seven-eighths of the whole, finding refuge in the swill tub. And I 
am not sure that it is not wasted even there, making a double waste, 
for I have seen hungry pigs refuse to eat the white tough ends 
that have been cut from the heads. 
Now, as a gardener I am quite unwilling to expend my labour 
in growdng produce of the kind referred to ; and if I w T ere an 
employer I should nfost decidedly object to any fancy process of 
culture by which such results are achieved as being economically 
unsound. Large heads I do not object to, provided they are not 
too large for an average-sized mouth, and I am not sure that I 
object to them even then ; but my employer does, for be has told 
me so, and warned me not to overstep the mark in that important 
respect; but the greatest possible portion of those large heads 
must be such as human beings can eat, and not such as pigs 
refuse, for this is not what I call good gardening. 
Asparagus, so far as I understand it, and judging also by the 
estimate of quality as decided by connoisseurs, is never so good 
as when it is grown so quickly by the aid of good soil and warm 
genial w’eather that the heads can be snapped off like glass near 
the surface of the soil. The produce is then buttery, juicy, and 
delicious, while it is also at the same time of the greatest possible 
medicinal value, inasmuch as the peculiar crystalline alkaloid, 
asparagine, is then developed—at least so an eminent scientific 
man has informed me, who has given much attention to the sub¬ 
ject, prompted, I believe, to a great extent by the gout. 
I have not been impelled by the same painful stimulant to refer 
to the subject in hand now, but was led to think over the matter 
after reading in the last w'eek’s Journal a note about an Asparagus 
competition that is to be held next month. I have not one word 
to say against this. If it will encourage the production of a 
greater amount of Asparagus of superior quality from a given 
piece of ground than before, it will be of great general advantage ; 
but whether this end will be accomplished will depend, in my 
view of the case, to a great extent on the judges, and the principles 
by which they are guided in giving their decisions. The matter, 
it seems to me, is cf too great importance to be dealt with on 
mere “fancy” grounds. We are told that “ the prizes will be 
given to the largest Asparagus, provided it be in all other respects 
unobjectionable.” The importance of this condition depends 
wholly on the interpretation of its qualification. What is to be 
understood by the term “ unobjectionable ? ” Everything depends 
on that in arriving at a sound rational comtnon-fense judgment. 
I can grow Asparagus far better than write about it, and am more 
at home in digging a piece of ground than in attempting an exercise 
in logic ; but I cannot help thinking that as Asparagus is not 
grown as a flower to gratify the eye, but to be eaten, that the 
bundle of heads which contains the greatest weight of stalks that 
cannot be eaten by man or pigs is the most objectionable, and the 
bundle containing the least amount of waste is the most meri¬ 
torious. Medium-sized green heads and stalks, what may be 
called the best English-grown produce, contain decidedly less 
waste than the huge white blanched stalks with red tips grown 
on the French system ; and yet the former that contains the 
greatest proportionate amount., or even the greatest actual amount 
of eatable produce would under some adjudicators have slight 
chance of winning a prize against the “largest” heads grown on 
the blanching system and which contain a much less weight that 
can be eaten. Or to put it another way, when the resources of 
the ground have been applied in the fullest manner for the pro¬ 
duction of food, the cultivator gets no prize, while if the soil has 
been exhausted or manure employed in growing a maximum 
amount of waste the cultivator is honoured. The Judges at Tun¬ 
bridge Wells have a difficult task to perform, and unless they take 
a practical, not a mere fanciful, view of the whole subject they 
will run the risk of giving prizes to what really amounts to soil- 
exhaustion, while those cultivators who turn its resources to the 
best account will be left out in the cold. It is not the farmer 
who grows the most straw and the least grain that is doing the 
best for himself and the land, for waste and weeds are synony¬ 
mous, and both, or either, lead to bankruptcy ; and what cannot 
be utilised of garden produce is as much waste in the garden as 
weeds are on the farm. 
Sixty heads, each 6 inches in length and as thick as a man’s 
thumb, of well-grown Asparagus, every particle green, and two- 
thirds of it tender, represent better and more economical cultivation 
than the same number of blanched and Frenchified heads 8 inches 
long and as big as the paws of a prize tom cat, if three-fourths of 
each head, as is often the case, is waste. But it may be asked, 
Why not grow the green beads and stalks as large as the white ? 
I know there are some people who call themselves horticulturists 
who betray their ignorance by making this proposition, and have 
led gentlemen who do not profess to study these matters to think 
it is practicable, to the discomfort of their gardeners. It is not 
practicable nor possible. No gardener, no Frenchman, can grow 
stalks of Asparagus 9 inches long, and green and crisp throughout, 
so large and heavy as the white tough stalks of the same length. 
A law of Nature is against him. So long as the growths are covered 
W'ith soil they increase in thickness as they advance in growth, 
but the moment the stems are above ground they commence 
diminishing in thickness, and the cultivator can no more prevent 
this than he can prevent the trunk of a Larch tree tapering to 
the top. This was stated some time ago by a writer in the Journal, 
and it is perfectly true. It is right that gentlemen should know 
if, then they can decide whether they will sacrifice quality for 
size or not, and instruct their gardeners accordingly. I have been 
instructed on this matter, and the circumstance may as well be 
stated. 
Some years ago my employer brought me some wonderful 
Asparagus from France. He did not say he desired me to grow 
some of the same kind, but I fancied it was my duty to try the 
blanching system. In due time I w 7 as able to send some huge 
white heads in the London hamper with the usual supply of the 
ordinary green produce ; and 1 confess I was not surprised to 
receive the following order :—“ Don’t send any more of that big 
French Asparagus, as neither my family nor friends like it so 
well as the other, and there appears to be so much waste about it.” 
Let those who like the large blanched produce have it by all 
means, but let them count the cost of its production by weighing 
the waste, and what it represents of the soil’s resources. I am 
amongst a large number who are like the waiter in Punch, who 
after remarking “ how huniversal is the love of sparrow-grass,” 
sententiously observed, “I don’t enjoy it so much myself now 
they’re growed such a size and such a colour. I likes my grass 
green, as seems more natural.”—A Country Gardener. 
A New Product from Birch Bark.—A French inventor 
has recently patented a method of improving indiarubber and 
gutta percha by the addition of a distillate of Birch bark. By 
distilling the outer layers of the bark he obtains a dense black 
gummy matter, which possesses the properties of ordinary gutta 
percha with the additional quality of resisting both the action of 
air and the strongest corrosive acids. He claims also that by 
