January 5, 1889. 
THE GABDENING WORLD. 
291 
fast lines cannot often be followed. The course of 
culture followed at one place may not be suitable at 
another; we must have regard to the wants of the 
plants and the circumstances of the position, there¬ 
fore the course of culture I have related would not be 
desirable under all conditions ; indeed, it would be 
foolish to attempt it, as for instance on sandy and 
medium soils—soils naturally well fitted for the growth 
of this vegetable. 
Eegarding the depth to which the soil should be 
prepared for Asparagus, the erroneous idea at one time 
was entertained that it was necessary to trench and 
manure to a depth of 2~ ft. or more. This is an 
unnecessary depth, for if we lift a plant of Asparagus it 
will be seen that all the roots extend horizontally or at 
most obliquely; few if any taking a downward 
course. Where, then, is the use of manuring and 
expending labour on the soil to such a depth ? The 
roots never reach it, and are better not so far down. 
It has also to be borne in mind that the crown and 
roots of Asparagus have a tendency to rise to the 
surface of the soil. If the soil be stirred and manured 
to a foot or 16 ins. in depth it ought to suffice. This 
depth and preparation of soil is simple and inexpen¬ 
sive compared with what was once detailed in the 
“Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society,” 
by a Dr. McCulloch. The following preparation of 
beds for Asparagus, says Dr. McCulloch, has been 
tried in Scotland with success. “A pit the size of the 
intended plantation is dug 5 ft. in depth, and the 
mould which is taken from it must be sifted, taking 
care to reject all stones, even as small in size as a 
Filbert nut; the best part of the soil must then be 
laid aside for making up the beds. 
“The materials of the bed are then to be laid in the 
following proportions and order:—6 ins. of common 
dunghill manure, 8 ins. of turf, 6 ins. of dung, as 
before, 6 ins. of sifted soil, 8 ins. of turf, 6 ins. of 
very rotten dung, and 8 ins. of the best soil. The last 
layer of soil must then be well mixed with the last of 
dung. The compartment must now be divided into 
beds 5 ft. wide by paths constructed of turf, 2 ft. in 
breadth and 1 ft. in thickness.” I venture to assert 
that neither in Scotland nor elsewhere would such a 
laborious and expensive preparation of ground now be 
undertaken for Asparagus. 
Yarieties of Asparagus. 
In trade lists the names of several varieties of Asparagus 
are given, but probably they are only synonyms. Good 
culture and bad culture will change the character of a 
variety. Messrs. Yilmorin, Andreaux & Co., of Paris, 
in their book, The Vegetable Garden, describe seven 
varieties of Asparagus which they consider possess 
really distinctive characteristics. Of these seven 
varieties one deserves special notice, and that is the 
Early Purple Giant Argenteuil, so much grown for the 
Paris markets, and so much lauded for the thickness of 
its shoots and their rosy-coloured points. Heads of 
this variety are said to have been grown from 3 ins. to 
6 ins. in circumference about Paris. It has been 
obtained by selecting from seedlings of the Giant Dutch 
Asparagus. By all accounts, this is the variety that 
should be cultivated in British gardens. In saving 
Asparagus seed some discretion is requisite. A French 
grower advises to select the best plants not under six 
years old, and not to cut any heads from them the 
season the seed is to be saved, the finest heads only to 
be allowed to run to seed, and when ripe the largest 
berries only to be selected, avoiding the top ones. In 
saving for ourselves seed of any flower or vegetable, we 
always select what we consider the best plants of a 
sort: the Cineraria with the most compact habit, the 
most profuse bloomer, the best-formed flowers, and 
these with the brightest colouring and best-defined 
markings ; or the Beet with the darkest leaves or most 
symmetrically-formed roots. 
In Asparagus the qualities we look for are size of 
head, quantity of heads to a plant, and earliness. 
Plants with the largest combination of these qualities 
should be selected for seeding. Selection is a matter 
of moment, and worthy of careful attention either in 
flowers or vegetables. The high standard of excellence 
these have now attained is due in a great measure to 
selection. Asparagus seeds retain their germinative 
power for five years. 
Seed Sowing. 
'With regard to sowing the seed there is not much to 
be said. The chief point of consequence is to have the 
soil well pulverised and moderately rich. If the 
weather is favourable, February or March are the best 
months in which to sow. It is most convenient to 
sow on beds or in drills 1 ft. apart. When the young 
plants become sufficiently large to handle they should 
be thinned out to 6 ins. or 7 ins. apart. In the 
following May the plants should be transferred to their 
permanent quarters, and be allowed 1 yard each way. 
One-year-old plants are preferable to older ones. 
Asparagus for Profit. 
Everything now-a-days has to be viewed very much 
from the commercial standpoint, and to those who 
grow this or any other vegetable it is the only practical 
view that can be taken. Unless it will pay it is of no 
use attempting it. The question then is, Will 
Asparagus pay l According to some this is doubtful. 
From Shaw’s work on The London Market Gardens it 
seems that its cultivation is being restricted in the 
neighbourhood of London. I quote the following from 
Mr. Shaw’s book: —“Our chief supply of early 
Asparagus comes from French gardens, in which it is 
cultivated on a better system than that followed about 
London. French Asparagus, which is supplied as 
early as November, has, therefore, so materially altered 
the price and demand for English-grown Asparagus, 
that the Fulham growers and others are continually 
reducing their plantations, and some have entirely 
done away with Asparagus to make room for quicker¬ 
growing and more remunerative crops. ” Apparently, 
then, the French growers, with their better system of 
cultivation, are beating British growers on their own 
ground. That it must be a profitable crop with the 
French need not be doubted, otherwise they would 
cease to send it to this country. 
Though I have never myself grown Asparagus for 
the purpose of marketing, yet from what I have noted 
I incline to the belief that on suitable soil and under 
proper management it would be a remunerative crop. 
That I might be able to state an opinion on this 
matter not merely from theory, I, this spring, 
marked out eighty of the strongest plants in our 
plantation and had the produce of them sold. From 
May 7th to June 11th I githered from these eighty 
plants, 1,250 heads of Asparagus, for which I realised 
3s. 4 1. per 100. On an average each plant produced 
fifteen heads. Assuming now that an acre of 
ground had been planted with Asparagus—one plant 
to each square yard—and that each plant had 
produced and realised to the same extent as the 
eighty, a sum of £126 per acre would be 
obtained. This would allow a large sum for working 
expenses, and would surely leave a sufficient margin of 
profit besides. Of course, a good profit would be 
needful to recoup the expenditure and no returns for 
the first three years ; but by intercropping the lines of 
Asparagus the first two years some returns might be 
made. I do not think the estimate I have made of 
the profit that might be realised an extravagant one, 
as 1 have shown I only gathered heads from the plants 
for a month, and on an average only took fifteen heads 
from each plant. Now from plants that were allowed 
to mature from ten to fourteen good shoots the previous 
autumn, they were certainly not severely robbed by 
losing fifteen heads each the following spring. I 
consider, therefore, that my estimate is moderate. 
Blanching. 
About the practice of blanching the young shoots of 
Asparagus with the view of improving their quality 
for table, there has been, and probably still is, some 
difference of opinion in this country as to whether 
blanched or unblanchei shoots are best. Probably 
some prefer them better the one way than the other. 
As it is an important point in their production, it may 
not be amise to state the opinion of our neighbours 
the French anent this matter. T quote the following 
from a French author:—“In certain localities in 
France they do value the distinction between blanched 
and green Asparagus, and occasionally prefer the latter ; 
this is an error very prejudical to the consumer’s 
interests. Properly blanched Asparagus is infinitely 
more tender and delicate. All Asparagus cut when 
green is not fit to be eaten in the usual way, but may 
be used cut up small as an accompaniment to other 
dishes. To serve up green Asparagus is to dishonour 
the table. In the markets of Paris the green Asparagus 
is worth a franc a bunch when the blanched is worth 
three francs ; they do not eat it (the green Asparagus), 
it serves for the manufacture of syrup of Asparagus.” 
Such is the testimony of a Frenchman, given in Parks 
and Gardens of Paris. 
Gathering the Crop. 
It is a well-known fact, and does not need repetition, 
that the heads should not be gathered too far into the 
season. If this be persisted in it materially weakens 
the plants, causes them to be late in maturing their 
growth, and probably later in starting into growth the 
following season. When commencing to gather heads 
from a young plantation for the first time, it will 
happen that some plants have not kept pace with the 
others, but are weaker. These weak plants should be 
marked out, and no heads taken from them till another 
season, which will allow them to gain strength and be 
equal to the others. The practice of starting to cut a 
head wherever it appears is a bad one. Each plant 
should be treated as a separate individual. 
The preservation of the shoots during their growths, 
and until they are matured, is of paramount importance, 
and owing to neglect of this, failure is courted and also 
caused. It is quite obvious that if any plant or tree 
be denuded of its foliage at an untimely season it will 
weaken its energies for the future, and smaller leaves 
and weaker growths will be produced. In the case of 
Asparagus it is the same—the annual stems support the 
entire leaves of the plant, are its lungs in fact ; ; destroy 
these and the plant must deteriorate, hence, therefore, 
the necessity of supporting the stems.— Alex. Porter, 
Luchie, North Berwick. 
-- 
IfoTES from Scotland. 
Coleuses for Winter Decoration. —These 
plants are not turned to so good an account as they 
might be for the winter decoration of the intermediate 
house. Several specimens about 3 ft. high, and the 
same in diameter, have continued effective till now 
with us, and are still in good order, the beautifully 
tinted foliage having remained intact, thus affording a 
pleasing contrast with such things as light and dark 
Dracaenas, Abutilons, Ferns, and Palms, with small 
plants of Mrs. Pollock Pelargonium on the lower 
benches. Now that so many choice varieties of Coleus 
can be had so easily from seed, no one having the 
command of a little fire-h;at under glass need be 
without these valuable and inexpensive plants for 
winter decoration. It is well to bear in mind that 
very rich soil should not be used when potting the 
plants, otherwise the variegation may not be so perfect. 
Maiden loam, peat and sand will be found a suitable 
compost for them. — Western. 
Pruning Gooseberries.— The pruning of Goose¬ 
berry bushes, although often regarded as a common¬ 
place operation, is, nevertheless, one which might well 
be performed in many gardens with more intelligence in 
regard to the prospects of a crop of fruit being secured. 
Some practitioners of the old school, who may still 
have their representatives in the ranks of gardeners, 
maintained, in order to secure highly flavoured fruit, 
that, together with other items of cultivation, a 
sparing use of the knife was essential to the end in 
view, and except for the purpose of removing all useless 
spray and such shoots and branches as were over¬ 
crowding each other, the knife was not used, all the 
points of the young shoots being left intact. In 
commenting on the various systems of pruning Goose¬ 
berries with a bothy companion a quarter of a century 
ago, he informel me that among other methods 
he had seen practised, was that of all the work 
being done by means of the finger and thumb, 
no knives being allowed to touch the bushes. 
Apart, however, from the question of flavour in 
directing our modes of pruning, there is the equally 
important one of protection from spring frosts to 
consider, and while anxious to secure fruit large and 
fine in quality, cultivators will do well to err on the 
safe side by leaving at least a portion of their bushes 
with as much useful bearing wood as is practicable. In 
the garden from which I write, the crops of Gooseberries 
have been plentiful for the last six years, excepting 
1887, and the bushes, it may be remarked, were more 
freely thinned at the preceding pruning season. It may 
be mentioned also, that, on the contrary, the heaviest 
crop ever gathered was in 1886, when from unavoidable 
circumstances pruning was left practically undone. 
In some localities, it may be remembered, the spring 
frosts of that year did much injury to Gooseberries in 
bloom, the result being a meagre crop of fruit. 
The necessity of liberal manuring, either in a liquid 
or solid condition, in order to promote good size and 
quality, should not be overlooked, more especially on 
light, shallow, and gravelly soils. The difference in 
the quality of the fruit produced on bushes so attended 
to, as compared with neglected plantations, is a 
sufficiently strong argument in favour of generous 
treatment at the roots. A line of Warringtons and 
other late varieties, which have received extra liberal 
treatment for a few years past, have always rewarded 
us in due time with exceptionally fine fruit.— Western. 
