April 8. 
ON THE VARIATION OF THE SEASONS AS 
EXEMPLIFIED IN ASPARAGUS. 
Notwithstanding that some of the traditions handed 
down to ns by our forefathers are said to he erroneous, 
yet there are others which will hear the strictest investi¬ 
gation of the improved practice of the present day; and 
| on reviewing the period in which tho supposed fallacies 
had their origin, might we not, in common charity, ask 
ourselves if we are not daily in the habit of adopting 
wrong ideas in a similar way ? How often do we hear 
the remark made, “ What an extraordinary cold day; how 
very iate the season is, certainly a month behind last 
year! Or it may be on seeing a solitary primrose in 
■1 anuary, “ V hat a remarkable early one !” Now, though 
great allowance must be made for the unthinking man¬ 
ner in which such thoughts are uttered,yet suppose they 
were noted down in the page of history, how foolish it 
would appear, especially as they might be accompanied 
by a set of ideas from another person, diametrically 
opposite in the conclusions come to. Now, though we 
know that many equally successful results follow from 
adopting opposite courses, as two navigators may both 
start together for the antipodes, and it is possible 
might arrive there both at the same time, although one 
sailed west and the other east, yet tho experience of 
those who went before them had demonstrated tire one 
way to be much better than the other; so likewise in 
the culture of many things belonging to the vegetable 
kingdom. But, confining our observations to things 
more especially bearing on the variations of the seasons, 
let us see if we cannot discover a more correct test for 
its earliness or lateness than the precarious blooming of 
the primrose noted above, whose cheering appearance 
may perhaps be more due to the greater amount of sun¬ 
shine of the last few hours than to that permanent 
advance of the season by which we ought to establish 
our criterion. In following out this idea, our first im¬ 
pression would be to find out something more stable 
in its growth, or, in other words, “ less the creature of 
circumstances ” than the universal favourite above; and 
the swelling or bursting of the buds of trees has often 
been pointed to ; but the process is so very slow in 
many species that no fixed period could well be deter¬ 
mined on as “ a fixed point,” as the memory could 
hardly be expected to bear this fictitious point from one 
year to another, and it would be no easy matter to ex¬ 
plain it on paper, we are, therefore, driven to find out a 
more simple test, aud one of the very best exists in the 
article which forms the subject of the present paper, and 
it is one to which we have for many years regarded as 
“ our thermometer ” of the season, and, strange to say, 
we have only to record a variation of about six days 
between the earliest season aud the latest one, while very 
often one or two is the usual difference. 
Our mode is this: the asparagus beds are done up in 
March, the soil on them made fine, and not too much of 
it; early in April we begin to look daily for the heads 
making their appearance, and the first one we see an 
inch above the level of the soil, we note it down, aud in 
a series of seasons our notes range from the 10th to 
the 16th April, as the periods we have first discovered 
this vegetable presenting itself. Although there are many 
situations earlier, and some later, yet the rule holds 
good in both, and we question if the variation is greater 
in either. Now we know of nothing else that forms such 
an undeviating register of the state of vegetation, and 
we advise our readers, in their various localities, to ex¬ 
amine for themselves; and as this number of The Cot¬ 
tage Gardener will issue from the press just in time for 
them to witness the advance of this valuable production, 
we strongly urge them to note it down in their pocket- 
book, and see how much difference another year makes. 
We know of only one more test that can be compared 
23 I 
| to it, and perhaps it may exceed it, being, as it is, a pro- ! 
j duction of more general importance, namely, wheat; aud 
however severe the winter may have been, stripping it 
almost of every blade, yet, when the time comes for it to 
shoot out into ear, it is always at its post. Now, I have 
not been able to notice this so much in the same neigh¬ 
bourhood, but, from what 1 have seen, I should say three 
or four days to be the maximum difference in its arrival 
to this state. Now this sounds odd, when we hear of 
some harvests being a month or more late than others; 1 
yet it is literally true; but, as we have no right to tres¬ 
pass in our neighbours wheat-field, let us retrace our 
steps, and see what our asparagus demands of us in the j 
shape of prepayment for the generous supplies it will 
soon begin to yield us, as well as to continue its utility 
as an index of the passing season. 
In saying a few words on the culture of this useful 
vegetable, we must not forget to remind our readers that, j 
although we have placed it as a sort of criterion of the 
season, yet that mighty personage “ the British public,” 
is anything but unanimous as to what the criterion of 
good asparagus is! Many of the writers on horticulture 
of the last few years, have condemned, with more freedom 
than courtesy, both the asparagus and its growers; yet we 
still see the great bulk of the asparagus exhibited for 
sale presents the same features it did years ago. Fickle 
and unaccountable as is the public taste, still there are 
some things to which honest John Bull clings with 
parental fondness, ahd if some of these notions be wrong, 
our duty is to assist in convincing him of it, and most 
certainly his predilictiolis for toiigh white asparagus, in 
place of tender grown, is erroneous in the extreme. It 
is no use to say its appearance is a something in its 
favour, because* when prepared for table, it certainly 
does not look so well as the green, and it is only when 
seen through the plate-glass of a green grocer's window 
that it looks so tempting ; and we have seen some sent 
to table not much better to eat and digest than if it 
had been a number Of bamboo walking-sticks cut into 
lengths, boiled and served up ; but, as this vegetable re¬ 
quires to be properly grown, as well as judiciously cooked, 
some hints that way come more directly under our 
department. 
We believe the best asparagus districts in the kingdom 
to be those fine diluvial soils found on the margins of 
rivers, and on none is it more cultivated with success 
than on the banks of the Thames; but, as every garden, 
where it is wanted, does not contain such a soil, some 
means must be taken to improve what they have, bear¬ 
ing in mind that the nearer they can imitate the soil 
alluded to, the more likely are they to be rewarded with 
success. Deep trenching, and removing inferior earth, 
to be replaced with better, will do a good deal, and 
liberal allowances of manure and other enriching mat¬ 
ters will assist much ; yet, with all these auxiliaries, the 
amateur need not be disappointed if he still be unable to 
cope with the occupants of the middle row of Covent 
Garden, as we know of nothing which attracts the atten¬ 
tion of our provincial gardeners so much as the quality of 
the asparagus there exhibited—we mean its size, and it 
would be easy to give it another colour. Now few 
gardens present a soil so nicely balanced to the wants of 
this plant as the one in question, and our mixtures 
rarely contain all the elements provided in such a 
locality; yet much may be done when a determination 
exists of having it good. One thing, be sure not to for¬ 
get to drain it well, if it requires it; not but that the 
moist humid atmosphere, and soil, too, by river sides are 
congenial to it, but the latter is more porous than is 
usually found in upland districts. When, therefore, it 
is determined to make asparagus beds on stiff' heavy j 
ground, a great accession of foreign matter must be had 
recourse to, and the beds, when made, ought to be 
elevated above the general ground. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
