Chapter 1

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ASPARAGUS

ITS CULTURE FOR HOME USE AND FOR MARKET

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE PLANTING, CULTIVATION, HARVESTING, MARKETING, AND PRESERVING OF ASPARAGUS, WITH NOTES ON ITS HISTORY AND BOTANY

BY

F. M. HEXAMER

_ILLUSTRATED_

NEW YORK ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 1914

_Printed in U. S. A._

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE vi I. Historical Sketch 1 II. Botany 4 III. Cultural Varieties 17 IV. Seed Growing 26 V. The Raising of Plants 30 VI. Selection of Plants 38 VII. The Soil and Its Preparation 43 VIII. Planting 49 IX. Cultivation 61 X. Fertilizers and Fertilizing 72 XI. Harvesting and Marketing 83 XII. Forcing 100 XIII. Preserving Asparagus 112 XIV. Injurious Insects 126 XV. Fungus Diseases 137 XVI. Asparagus Culture in Different Localities 145 INDEX 167

ILLUSTRATIONS

Beginning of the Asparagus Industry in California _Frontispiece_

PAGE

Asparagus Plumosus Nanus 5 Asparagus Sprengeri 7 Asparagus Laricinus 9 Asparagus Racemosus, var. Tetragonus 11 Asparagus Sarmentosus 12 Crown, Roots, Buds, Spear 14 Stem, Leaves, Flowers, Berries 14 Flowers 15 Palmetto Asparagus 21 Pot-Grown Plant 37 Horizontal Development of Roots 51 Trenches Ready for Planting 57 Hudson's Trencher 58 Root in Proper Position for Covering 59 Cross-section of Trenches After Planting 60 Asparagus Field Ridged in Early Spring 67 Leveling the Ridges After Cutting Season 69 Fertilized Asparagus Plot 75 Unfertilized Asparagus Plot 77 Basket of Asparagus 85 Cutting and Picking Up Asparagus 86 Horse Carrier for Ten Boxes 87 Asparagus Knives 89 End and Side View of White Asparagus Bunches 90 Conover's Asparagus Buncher 91 Watt's Asparagus Buncher 92 Rack and Knives Used in New England 93 At the Bunching Table 94 Box of Giant Asparagus 97 Southern Asparagus Crate 98 Tunnel for Forcing Steam Through the Soil 107 A Long Island Asparagus Cannery 113 Sterilizing Tank 115 Sterilizing Room 117 Interior View of a California Asparagus Cannery 119 Perspective View of a California Asparagus Cannery 121 Cannery in Asparagus Fields 123 Common Asparagus Beetle 127 Asparagus Attacked by Beetles 129 Spotted Ladybird 131 Twelve-spotted Asparagus Beetle 134 Asparagus Stems Affected with Rust 138 Portion of Rusted Asparagus Stems 139 Asparagus Field on Bouldin Island 161

PREFACE

The cultivation of asparagus for home use as well as for market is so rapidly increasing, and reliable information pertaining to it is so frequently asked for, that a book on this subject is evidently needed. While all works on vegetable culture treat more or less extensively on its cultivation, so far there has been no book exclusively devoted to asparagus published in America. Asparagus is one of the earliest, most delicious, and surest products of the garden. Its position among other vegetables is unique, and when once planted it lasts a lifetime; it may be prepared for use in great variety, and may be canned or dried so as to be available at any time of the year; and yet in the great majority of farm gardens it is almost unknown. The principal reason for this neglect is based upon the erroneous idea that asparagus culture requires unusual skill, expense, and hard work. While this was true, in a measure, under old-time rules, modern methods have so simplified every detail connected with the cultivation of asparagus as to make it not necessarily more expensive and laborious than that of any other garden crop. To describe and make clear these improved methods, to demonstrate how easily and inexpensively an asparagus bed may be had in every garden, and how much pleasure, health, and profit may be derived from the crop have been the principal inducements to writing this book.

In a popular treatise on so widely distributed a vegetable as asparagus, the cultivation of which had been brought to a high state of development many centuries before the Christian era, there is little opportunity for originality. All that the author has endeavored in this little volume has been to collect, arrange, classify, and systematize all obtainable facts, compare them with his own many years' experience in asparagus culture, and present his inferences in a plain and popular manner. Free use has been made of all available literature, especially helpful among which has been the Farmers' Bulletin No. 61 of the United States Department of Agriculture, by R. B. Handy; also bulletins of the Missouri, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, and South Carolina and other experiment stations; the files of _American Agriculturist; Gardener's Chronicle_, from which descriptions of several ornamental species by William Watson were condensed; Thome's "Flora von Deutschland;" "Eintraegliche Spargelzucht," von Franz Goeschke; "Braunschweiger Spargelbuch," von Dr. Ed. Brinckmeier; "Parks and Gardens of Paris," by William Robinson; "Asparagus Culture," by James Barnes and William Robinson; "Les Plantes Potageres," by Vilmorin-Andrieux; the works of Peter Henderson, Thomas Bridgeman, J. C. Loudon, and others.

The author desires to express his grateful acknowledgments to Mr. Herbert Myrick, editor-in-chief of _American Agriculturist_ and allied publications, for critically reading the whole manuscript; to Prof. W. G. Johnson, Charles V. Mapes, C. L. Allen, A. D. McNair, Superintendent Southern Pines Experimental Farm; Prof. W. F. Massey, Robert W. Nix, Robert Hickmott, Charles W. Prescott, Joel Borton, and all others who by their help, suggestions, and advice have aided him in the preparation of this work.

F. M. HEXAMER.

_New York, 1901._

ASPARAGUS

I

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The word "asparagus" is said to be of Persian origin. In middle Latin it appears as _sparagus_; Italian, _sparajio_; old French, _esperaje_; old English, _sperage_, _sparage_, _sperach_. The middle Latin form, _sparagus_, was in English changed into _sparagrass_, _sparrow-grass_, and sometimes simply _grass_, terms which were until recently in good literary use. In modern French it is _asperge_; German, _spargel_; Dutch, _aspergie_; Spanish, _esperrago_.

The original habitat of the edible asparagus is not positively known, as it is now found naturalized throughout Europe, as well as in nearly all parts of the civilized world. How long the plant was used as a vegetable or as a medicine is likewise uncertain, but that it was known and highly prized by the Romans at least two centuries before the Christian era is historically recorded. According to Pliny, the Romans were already aware of the difference in quality, that grown near Ravenna being considered best, and was so large that three spears weighed one pound. The elder Cato has treated the subject with still greater care. He advises the sowing of the seed of asparagus in the beds of vine-dressers' reeds, which are cultivated in Italy for the support of the vines, and that they should be burned in the spring of the third year, as the ashes would act as a manure to the future crop. He also recommends that the plants be renewed after eight or nine years.

The usual method of preparing asparagus pursued by the Roman cooks was to select the finest sprouts and to dry them. When wanted for the table they were put in hot water and cooked a few minutes. To this practice is owing one of Emperor Augustus's favorite sayings: "_Citius quam asparagi coquentur_" (Do it quicker than you can cook asparagus).

While the indigenous asparagus has been used from time immemorial as a medicine by Gauls, Germans, and Britons, its cultivation and use as a vegetable was only made known to the people by the invading Roman armies. But in the early part of the sixteenth century it was mentioned among the cultivated garden vegetables, and Leonard Meager, in his "English Gardener," published in 1683, informs us that in his time the London market was well supplied with "forced" asparagus.

The medicinal virtues formerly attributed to asparagus comprise a wide range. The roots, sprouts, and seeds were used as medicine. The fresh roots are diuretic, perhaps owing to the immediate crystalizable principle, "asparagine," which is said to be sedative in the dose of a few grains. A syrup made of the young shoots and an extract of the roots has been recommended as a sedative in heart affections, and the _species diuretica_--a mixture of asparagus, celery, parsley, holly, and sweet fennel--was a favorite preparation for use in dropsy and gravel. Among the Greeks and Romans it was one of the oldest and most valued medicines, and to which most absurd virtues were attributed. It was believed that if a person anointed himself with a liniment made of asparagus and oil the bees would not approach or sting him. It was also believed that if the root be put on a tooth which aches violently it causes it to come out without pain. The therapeutic virtues of asparagus seem to have been held in almost as high esteem by the ancients as those of ginseng are esteemed by the Chinese to this day.

II

BOTANY

The genus Asparagus belongs to the Lily Family. It comprises about one hundred and fifty species, and these are spread through the temperate and tropical regions of the Old World. One-half of these species are indigenous to South Africa, and it is from this region that the most ornamental of the greenhouse species have been obtained.

All the species are perennial, with generally fleshy roots or tubers. The stems are annual in some, perennial in others, most of them being spiny, climbing shrubs, growing to a length of from five to twenty or even fifty feet. The true leaves are usually changed into spines, which are situated at the base of the branches and are often stout and woody. The false leaves, termed cladodia, are the linear or hair-like organs which are popularly called leaves; they are in reality modified branches. These cladodia are nearly always arranged in clusters at intervals along the branches, and the flowers generally spring from their axils. They usually fall off the hardy species in winter, and they are easily affected by unfavorable conditions in all the species. Most of them flower and fruit freely under cultivation, so that seeds are available for propagation.

ORNAMENTAL SPECIES

_A. medeoloides_ (_Myrsiphyllum asparagoides_), popularly known as Smilax.--For many years this has been, and is yet, one of the most commonly grown and the most serviceable of the plants used by florists as "green." It is readily grown from seed in the greenhouse. While a few other species of asparagus have been close rivals, it is yet unexcelled for many purposes of floral decorations.

_A. plumosus_ (the plumy asparagus).--A very graceful climbing plant which for finer decoration has largely taken the place of smilax, its foliage being finer than that of the most delicate ferns, and will last for weeks after being cut. The whole plant is of a bright, cheerful green. Its branches spread horizontally, and branch again in such a manner as to form a flat, frond-like arrangement, the leaves being very numerous, in clusters of about a dozen, bright green, and one-half inch long. A native of South Africa, where it climbs over bushes and branches in moist situations. There are several named varieties of this, most of which have originated in gardens. The most distinct are _A. tenuissimus_ and _A. plumosus nanus_, the fern-like appearance of which is seen in Fig. 2.

_A. Sprengeri._--This is one of the best and most attractive house plants of recent introduction. It is of graceful form and habit when grown as a pot plant, but it is equally well suited for planting in hanging baskets. Its fronds are frequently four feet long, of a rich shade of green, and very useful for cutting, retaining their freshness for weeks after being cut. As a house plant it has exceeded expectations, as it stands dry atmosphere better than the older kinds of ornamental asparagus, and is not particular as to any special position. It delights in a well-enriched soil, rather light in composition, with plenty of drainage, and grows very rapidly. It is decidedly pretty when in bloom, its little flowers being pure white on short racemes, and the anthers are of a bright orange color. Fig. 3 gives a good idea of its graceful habit.

_A. falcatus._--One of the most striking twining plants for a large, temperate house. At the Kew Gardens, in London, England, is an enormous specimen of this species which is trained against the northern staircase, where it has formed a perfect thicket two yards through and twenty-five feet high, of long, rope-like, intertwining, spinous, fawn-colored stems, some of them fully fifty feet long, and clothed with wiry, woody branches, bearing whorls of leaves from two to three inches long and nearly one-fourth of an inch wide, falcate and bright green. The young stems are thick and succulent and gray-green, mottled with brown. For large conservatories, and particularly in moist, shady corners, where ordinary climbers will not thrive, this is an ideal plant. It is a native of the tropics of Asia and Africa, as well as the Cape.

_A. laricinus_ (Fig. 4).--This handsome species has been in the Kew collection at least twenty years. It is grown in the succulent house, where, from a vigorous root system, it sends up annual stout succulent shoots, which grow to a length of about twelve feet, and when fully developed are decidedly ornamental. The stems are perennial, terete, dark brown, woody, one-half inch in diameter at the base, very spinous, freely branched, and branches zigzag and gray, the leaves in clusters one-fourth inch apart, hair-like, one and one-half inches long, bright green, persistent. Flowers axillary, many in a cluster, small, campanulate, white. Berries globose, dull red, one seeded, one-sixth of an inch in diameter. Common in various parts of South Africa. It is an excellent pillar plant.

_A. racemosus._--This species is spread throughout the tropics of Africa and Asia; the Cape form of it is represented at Kew under the name of variety _tetragonus_, as shown in Fig. 5. This is a vigorous grower, with woody stems nine feet long, prickly at the base, fawn colored, freely branching above, each branch having at its base a sharp spine three-quarters of an inch long. The leaves are of a gray-green hue, four-angled, one-quarter of an inch long. Flowers in racemes two inches long, whitish, very fragrant. Berry red, globose, pulpy, one-seeded. An excellent climber for rafters, pillars, etc., growing vigorously under ordinary treatment. Its root system is a dense mass of tubers.

_A. sarmentosus_ (Fig. 6).--An elegant evergreen species from South Africa, where it grows freely in moist situations, forming dense, brushy stems with short prickles, and studded with white, starry, fragrant flowers, which are followed with bright scarlet, pea-like berries; has stems four feet high, freely branched and clothed with dark green flat leaves three inches long. It is also grown in pots and baskets for the Cape-house, and when in flower it is greatly admired.

_A. Broussoneti._--A beautiful hardy perennial climber from the Canary Islands, growing ten feet high; feathery foliage and scarlet berries. In the autumn this is very ornamental.

Among the most noteworthy of other ornamental species are: _A. Aethiopicus_, _Africanus_, _Asiaticus_, _Cooperi_, _crispus_, _declinatus_, _decumbens_, _lucidus_, _retrofractus_, _scandens_, _tenuifolius_, _trichophyllus_, _umbellatus_, _verticillatus_, _virgatus_, etc., etc.

EDIBLE SPECIES

_Asparagus officinalis._--While the young sprouts of a few other species may be used as food, this is the only one which has found a permanent place in cultivation. It is a branching, herbaceous plant, reaching a hight of from three to seven feet; the filiform branchlets, three to seven inches long, less than one-quarter inch thick, are mostly clustered in the axils of minute scales. The rootstock, or "crown," is perennial, and makes a new growth each year of from one to three inches, extending horizontally, and generally in a straight line. It may propagate from both ends, or from only one, but in either case the older part of root stalk becomes unproductive and finally dies. Fig. 7 shows the new portion of the rootstock crowned with buds for the production of new shoots, while the older portion bears the scars and dead scales of previous growths. From the sides and the lower part of the rootstock numerous cylindrical, fleshy roots start and extend several feet horizontally, but do not penetrate the soil deeply. In the course of time the older roots become hollow and inactive without becoming detached from the rootstock. The young root formation always takes place a little above the old roots, which circumstance explains why the asparagus plants gradually rise above the original level, thus necessitating the annual hilling up or the covering of the crowns with additional soil.

The asparagus flowers are mostly solitary at the nodes, of greenish-yellow color, drooping or filiform, jointed peduncles; perianth, six-parted, campanulate, as seen in Fig. 8. Anthers, introrse; style, short; stigma, three-lobed; berry, red, spherical, three-celled; cells, two-seeded. While the flowers are generally dioecious--staminate and pistillate flowers being borne on different plants--there appear also hermaphrodite flowers, having both pistils and fully developed stamens in the same flower. Fig. 9 shows a pistillate, Fig. 10 a staminate, and Fig. 11 a hermaphrodite or bisexual flower.

In one case, at least, the author has also observed that a plant which has been barren of seed at first changed into a seed-bearing plant the following year. Similar changes in the sexuality of strawberries have been observed under certain conditions. These facts may explain, in a measure, the difficulty experienced in raising permanently sterile asparagus plants.

_Asparagus acutifolius._--A native of Southern Europe and Northern Africa. It has a fleshy rootstock, hard, wiry, brown stems, five to seven feet high, with rigid branches three to six inches long, thickly closed, with tufts of gray-green, hair-like, rigid leaves, which in exposed situations are almost spinous. Flowers yellow, a quarter of an inch in diameter, fragrant. The young sprouts are tender, and, when cooked, of a peculiar aromatic flavor. In their native home they are used like the cultivated kind.

_A. aphyllus._--Indigenous to Greece, where the young shoots are commonly used as food, especially during Lent.

III

CULTURAL VARIETIES

Although but one species of edible asparagus has found its way into general cultivation, many varieties and strains are recognized.

Up to within a comparatively recent period it was thought that there existed only one distinct kind, or variety, of asparagus. As late as 1869 so keen an observer as Peter Henderson believed that "the asparagus of our gardens is confined to only one variety, and the so-called giant can be made gigantic or otherwise, just as we will it, and the purple top variety will become a green top whenever the composition of the soil is not of the kind to develop the purple, and _vice versa_. All practical gardeners know how different soils and climates change the appearance of the same variety. Seeds of cabbage taken from the same bag and sown at the same time, but planted out in soils of light sandy loam, heavy clayey loam, and peat or leaf-mold, will show such marked differences when at maturity as easily to be pronounced different sorts. This, no doubt, is the reason why the multitude of varieties of all vegetables, when planted side by side to test them, are so wonderfully reduced in number."

But after inspecting an acre of ordinary asparagus and an acre of Abraham Van Siclen's Colossal--which was afterward introduced as Conover's Colossal--at Jamaica, L. I., N. Y., Mr. Henderson wrote: "A thorough inspection of the roots of each lot proved that they were of the same age when planted. The soil was next examined, and found to be as near the same as could be, yet these two beds of asparagus showed a difference that no longer left me a shadow of a doubt of their being entirely different varieties."

In but few vegetables do the conditions of soil, locality, mode of cultivation, and other circumstances affect the quality, size, and appearance as much as in asparagus. It is therefore difficult to distinguish fixed and permanent varieties from mere local strains and forms secured by selection.