Vot. LYII. No. 2553. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 31, 1898. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
WINTER FORCING OF ASPARAGUS. 
HOW IT IS DONE IN THE OPEN FIELD. 
The Use of Steam for the Purpose. 
Those who wish to force asparagus in Winter, should 
bear in mind the fact that this plant naturally starts 
very early in Spring, and that comparatively few warm 
days will start it into growth before the ground has 
absorbed much heat. This suggests the theory, which 
is well borne out by practice, that successfully to force 
the plant, heat should be applied very gradually from 
abone, rather than from below. For six or seven years, 
we have been interested in determining the best 
method of forcing asparagus during Winter. 
The Common Method of moving the plants to 
some warm sheltered place for forcing, is not alto¬ 
gether satisfactory, and in this latitude (Columbia, 
Mo.), it is not necessary to take the trouble to move 
the plants from the field. It is true that some growers 
have been quite successful in forcing this vegetable 
under greenhouse 
benches, in cellars, in 
pits and even in hotbeds, 
with a very mild “bot¬ 
tom ” heat. Since light 
is not essential to its 
early growth, asparagus 
may be forced almost 
anywhere if sufficient 
heat is secured. Forc¬ 
ing indoors, however, 
necessitates transplant¬ 
ing the roots, requires a 
constant supply of heat 
and, more than all, de¬ 
stroys the plants, once 
forced, for further use. 
Since asparagus plants 
are seldom strong 
enough for profitable 
forcing before they are 
four years old, their 
production for a single 
Winter’s product is quite 
expensive. 
Forcing Asparagus 
Outdoors.— In 1892, we 
attempted asparagus 
forcing in the open field. 
A thickly-planted bed 
was mulched in Autumn, 
to prevent the ground 
from freezing too hard. 
During the Winter, sec¬ 
tions of this bed were 
cleared from time to 
time, and wooden frames, one board high and six feet 
wide, were placed over the cleared space. Within 
these frames, the soil was lightly forked up as deep 
as could be done without injury to the asparagus 
crowns. The frames were then banked up with heat¬ 
ing horse manure, and about six inches of this com¬ 
post were placed inside the frames, which were then 
covered with sash. In a short time, a fair growth of 
asparagus was secured. The stems quickly grew up 
through the loose soil and, where the heat was not too 
great, into the fermenting compost. Sufficient heat 
was, in this way, secured, and ample ventilation was 
necessary in order to prevent burning the stems, and 
even the crowns of the plants themselves. So much 
ventilation was necessary that we found, later on, 
that the frames and sashes were not essential, and 
that six or eight inches of fermenting compost from 
the horse stable without other protection, were suf¬ 
ficient, in ordinary Winter weather, to bring up a 
good crop of asparagus. This was an uncertain 
method, however, as a very cold spell (weather below 
zero), might prevent the heating of this layer of com¬ 
post, and delay, or destroy altogether, all hopes of a 
crop. 
Trenches and Manure.— In order to insure heat¬ 
ing of this compost in severe weather, our next step 
was to trench between the rows, and fill these trenches 
with the stable litter, thus better protecting it from 
loss of heat. The trenching was done by plowing be¬ 
tween the rows, turning furrows each way, ridging 
up the earth over the plants. The furrows between 
the rows were then cleaned out with the spade a little 
deeper than the asparagus crowns, and as wide as 
could well be done without injury to the roots. These 
trenches were tramped full of heating compost, and a 
little was also spread over the rows themselves, so the 
entire bed was covered. This was the best method 
yet tried, as the manure confined in these trenches 
was quite certain to heat in any Winter weather in 
this locality. We employed this method mainly on 
asparagus and rhubarb toward Spring, securing a crop 
three or four weeks earlier than the usual season. 
Steam or Water Pipes. —Heating these trenches, 
between the rows, with fermenting compost, suggested 
the possibility of heating them with steampipes or 
hot-water pipes. Why not cover the trenches and run 
a system of heating pipes through them, and thus 
supply any desired amount of heat, at any time, from 
the boiler ? The difficulty with this method was that 
the hot pipes too quickly dried out the soil, thus spoil¬ 
ing the roots of the plants. Not only was this drying 
destructive, but the dry earth next the pipes acted as 
a non-conductor of heat, and prevented its equal dis¬ 
tribution throughout the bed. The soil near the pipes 
would get much too hot before the heat was felt at 
the crowns of the plants. An attempt to give addi¬ 
tional heat to hotbeds, by running a steampipe under 
the compost in the beds, also failed to give good re¬ 
sults on account of the drying effect directly over and 
near the pipes, and the lack of equal distribution of 
the heat throughout the beds. We were very success¬ 
ful in obviating this difficulty in heating the hotbeds, 
by building a loose brick tunnel lengthwise of each 
bed, under the compost, and running steam directly 
into the mouth of this tunnel, through a steam hose, 
for a few minutes daily. In this way, the steam read¬ 
ily flowed through the openings between the bricks, 
permeated the bed in every direction, and moistened, 
instead of drying it. This warming and moistening 
the compost also gave rise to its prompt fermentation. 
Fig. 399 shows the arrangement. 
Steam In Open Fields. —The success attained, in 
heating hotbeds, by blowing steam directly into the 
compost, through loosely built brick tunnels under 
the beds, induced us to attempt the forcing of aspar¬ 
agus in the open field by running steam, for a few 
minutes daily, into covered trenches between the 
rows. The field was prepared by trenching between 
the rows, as described above for heating - with ferment¬ 
ing stable litter. These shallow trenches were covered 
with boards, forming tunnels about four inches high 
and ten inches broad, between the rows. These tun. 
nels were a few inches 
deeper than the crowns 
of the plants. Better to 
retain the steam in the 
tunnels, the soil to a 
depth of about four 
inches as dug from the 
trenches was dragged 
back over the board 
covers, and the whole 
bed was mulched about 
six inches deep, with 
fermenting stable ma¬ 
nure. In making the 
trenches, the soil was 
ridged up over the rows, 
until the crowns of the 
asparagus were covered 
about 10 inches deep 
with loose soil. The 
manure mulch was for 
the purpose of retaining 
the heat, and for pro¬ 
tecting the asparagus 
sprouts from frost as 
they grew through the 
soil. 
The Steam Connec¬ 
tion. —To conduct the 
steam, a 1%-inch pipe 
was carried above 
ground, from the boiler 
to the asparagus field, a 
distance of 185 feet. 
This pipe was provided 
with a valve for regulat¬ 
ing the flow of steam. A steam hose, long enough to 
reach from this pipe to the tunnels between the rows, 
was attached. A section of tile was inserted into the 
mouth of each tunnel, to prevent the discharging 
steam from tearing away the earth. 
Steaming the Soil. —The first steam was turned 
into the tunnels on November 14, 1896. Steam was 
discharged into each tunnel not to exceed five minutes 
at a time, in order not to heat the earth too much in 
any one place. The first day, steam was turned into 
each tunnel, a total of 10 to 15 minutes to bring the 
temperature up to the required 60 degrees. Ther¬ 
mometers in the soil in various localities showed that 
the distribution of heat throughout the asparagus bed 
was very uniform and satisfactory. The moist steam 
seemed to permeate the loose soil equally in all direc¬ 
tions. After this first heating, very little steaming 
was necessary until the asparagus began to be pro¬ 
duced. On an average, the bed was steamed about 
twice in three days, and then only about five minutes 
for each tunnel. The moist soil and horse manure 
A PARTIAL VIEW OF THE LAKE IN THE RURAL GROUNDS. Fig. 398. See Ruralisms, Page 883. 
