The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots | Page 6

heaping up of soft soil, such as leaf-mould, will
accomplish it. On the Continent many contrivances are resorted to,
such as covering the heads with wooden or earthen pipes. In a few
districts in France champagne-bottles with the bottoms cut away are
employed. But a strong growth being secured, the cultivator will find it
an easy matter to regulate the degree of colour according to the
requirements of the table he has to serve. As a rule, a moderately stout
growth, with a fair show of purple colour, is everywhere appreciated,
and is the easiest to produce, because the most natural.
There is, however, an interesting point in connection with the
production of green Asparagus, and it is that if wintry weather prevails
when the heads are rising (as unfortunately is often the case) the tender

green tops may be melted by frost and become worthless, or may be
rendered so tough as to place the quality below that of blanched
Asparagus; for the blanching is also a protective process, and quickly
grown white Asparagus is often more tender and tasty than that which
is green, but has been grown slowly. As the season advances and the
heads rise rapidly the green Asparagus acquires its proper flavour and
tenderness, and thus practical considerations should more or less
influence final decisions on matters of taste. The business of the
cultivator is to produce the kind of growth that is required, whether
white or green, or of a quality intermediate between the two. This is
easily done, making allowance for conditions. When green Asparagus
is alone in demand, the cultivator may be advised to have in readiness,
as the heads are making their first show, a sufficient supply of some
rough and cheap protecting material, such as grass and coarse weeds,
cut with a sickle from odd corners of the shrubbery and meadow land,
or clean hay and straw perfectly free from mildew; but for obvious
reasons stable litter should not be used. A very light sprinkling of
material over an Asparagus bed that is making a first show of produce
will ward off the morning frosts, and amply compensate for the little
trouble in saving many tender green sticks that the frosts would melt to
a jelly and render worthless. After the second or third week in May the
litter may be removed if needful; but if appearances are of secondary
importance, it may be left to shrink away on the spot.
==Cutting.==--Asparagus as supplied by market growers is needlessly
long in the stem. The bundles have an imposing appearance, no doubt,
but the useless length adds nothing to the comfort of those at table, and
is a wasteful tax on the energy of the plant. For home consumption it
will generally suffice if the white portion is about four inches long, and
this determines the depth at which the sticks should be cut. Here it may
be useful to remark that deeply buried roots do not thrive so well as
those which are nearer the surface, nor do they produce such early
crops. The sticks are usually cut by thrusting down a stiff
narrow-pointed knife, or specially made saw, close to each shoot; and it
is necessary to do this with judgment, or adjacent shoots, which are not
sufficiently advanced to reveal their presence by lifting the soil, may be
damaged. To avoid this risk of injury by the knife it is possible from

some beds to obtain the sticks without the aid of any implement by a
twist and pull combined, but the process needs a dexterous hand and is
impracticable in tenacious soils. The sticks of a handsome sample will
be white four or five inches of their length; the tops close, plump, of a
purplish-green colour, and the colour extending two or at most three
inches down the stems. Both size and degree of colouring are, however,
so entirely questions of taste that no definite rule can be stated. It is
more to the purpose to say that, if liberally grown, the plant may be cut
from in the third year; and that cutting should cease about the middle of
June, or early in July, according to the district. For the good of the plant
the sooner cutting ceases the better, as the next year's buds have to be
formed in the roots by the aid of the top-growth of the current season.
==Weeding and Staking.==--Two other points relating to the general
management are worthy of attention. Some crops get on fairly well
when neglected and crowded with weeds. Not so with Asparagus. The
plant appears to have been designed to enjoy life in solitude, being
unfit for competition; and if weeds make way in an Asparagus bed, the
cultivator will pay a heavy penalty for his neglect of