ASPARAGUS, a genus of about 150 spe cies of mostly tuberous-rooted, climbing, droop ing, trailing or erect perennial herbs or shrubs widely distributed in tropical and warm tem perate countries, especially in southern Europe and southern Africa, but more or less culti vated for food or ornament in all civilized countries. Some species rival and even excel the most delicate ferns in beauty of habit and foliage, which, botanically considered, consists not of leaves but leaf-like stems. The orna mental species with the exception of A. verti cillatus (see below), must all be grown in green houses, except in southern Florida and south ern California, where they may be planted with safety out of doors. They are readily and usually propagated by seeds, but often also by cuttings and by division. Among the best known ornamental species cultivated in Ameri ca are the following: A. asparagoides, also known as Myrsiphyllum asparagoides, the smilax of the florist, is widely grown for dec orative purposes, for which its glossy green leaves specially commend it. (For culture, see Sattn.Ax). A. sprengeri is a species native in Natal, with long drooping branches, glossy light-green leaves (white in one variety), small white fragrant flowers in small racemes, and little red berries. It is very popular, especially for planting in hanging baskets. A. plumosus, a tall climbing species from South Africa with horizontal branches of beautiful form, tex ture, and color, which qualities are retained for weeks or even months after cutting, is de servedly one of the most popular of decorative plants. It has developed several varieties, some of which, especially the variety tenuissi mus, are even more popular than the original species. A. verticillatus, a hardy species with tufts of hair-like leaves and small red berries, is a native of Persia and Siberia, and climbs to a height of 12 to 15 feet from a woody root stock. Several other species are cultivated for ornament in America.
Best and most widely known, however, is A. officinalis, esculent asparagus, which is also used to some extent as an ornamental plant. It is a perennial herb, native of Europe and Asia, and commonly found growing on sandy loam or sea shores, river banks and among shrubby undergrowth. In a wild state it rarely exceeds a foot in height and a stem diameter of more than one-third of an inch; but in gar dens sprouts are sometimes obtained as thick as a man's wrist, and the plants often grow more than four feet tall. For more than 2,000 years it has been cultivated for its succulent young shoots, produced from the thick root stocks in spring. An excellent method of growing the plant may be epitomized as fol lows: The land chosen for the bed should be a rich, friable and warm loam, preferably ex posed to the south or east. Manure should be applied without stint before the plants are set, and the preparation of the soil should be deep and thorough. The plants may be home-grown or purchased. One-year-old plants, if sturdy, are preferable to older ones. For home grow-, ing a separate nursery bed should be prepared, and the seed previously soaked 24 hours in order to hasten germination, sown in early spring, about two inches apart and one inch deep, at which rate an ounce should be enough for 200 or more feet of drill. Some radish seed of a small early maturing variety should be sown in the same drill, so that the young radish plants, which quickly appear, may mark the position of the rows of the slower-appear ing and less-conspicuous asparagus plants. As soon as the radishes are of edible size, or even before, if necessary, they should be pulled and the asparagus plants, then an inch or two tall, left in possession of the ground. Beyond keep ing down weeds, destroying pests and thinning the plants to four inches asunder, no further attention is necessary during the first year. In the spring of the second year, if properly man aged during the first, the plants should be large enough to be transplanted to the permanent bed. If too small they should be transplanted at least eight inches asunder and grown a second year in a nursery bed. In the permanent bed the plants should stand at least two feet asunder in rows not less than four feet apart.
Five or even six feet for the larger growing varieties is much better. Staminate plants are more productive of shoots than pistillate, but are difficult to recognize until the plants flower. The furrows are plowed six inches deep or deeper, the plants set in the bottom, but at first covered with only about two inches of earth. After growth starts the trench is gradually filled by cultivation which must be thorough, both among the plants and between the rows. Not before the second spring after planting in permanent quarters should any shoots be gath ered. At the time of planting a liberal dressing of some slowly decomposing fertilizer, such as ground bone, should be given in the drill, and in the spring of each year complete fertilizers should be applied liberally. (See Frill lams). In addition to such applications many growers spread stable manure upon the bed in the autumn after the tops have been removed, a necessary practice to prevent the scattering of the seeds upon the bed. In the spring as soon as the soil can be worked the land is either plowed shallow or cultivated deeply to bury the manure. Since the plants are gross feeders there need be little fear of fertilizing too heavily. Methods of gathering depend somewhat upon whether the stalks are to be blanched or left green. Blanching is done by ridging the soil 13 inches deep above the crowns. Stalks so produced are gathered as soon as the tips appear above the soil; green stalks are cut when about nine inches long, in cluding the base of two or more inches below the surface of the ground. In each case the stalk may be cut with an asparagus knife or preferably snapped near the crown, or at least at the proper depth, if blanched, by plunging the hand down in the loose soil beside the stalk and severing it with the fingers. By the latter method there is less danger of injuring other shoots. All cutting should cease when green peas, grown in the same locality, are ready for the table, because the plants must be given op portunity to store up food for the following year. The stems are usually sold in bunches of various sizes, the grade depending upon the length and number of stalks in the bunch. The bunch commonly sold is eight and one-half inches long, weighs about two pounds and con tains 30 spears. As a rule, the thicker the spear the better. First-class spears are three-quarters of an inch thick or thicker. Every care must be taken in handling to prevent bruising, since a gummy juice collects in the broken cells, and the injured stalks spoil by heating. After wash ing, the stalks should be dried' and kept cool. If to be shipped long distances, their butts should rest in damp sphagnum moss or similar material. In the home garden, where horse cultivation is not practicable, the plants may be set even as close as 18 inches by two feet, but the manuring, cultivation and other care must be increased in order to obtain choice shoots. Each spring the very liberal dressing of manure applied the previous autumn should be forked, not dug, in, and a lavish amount of commercial fertilizer, rich in potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, applied. Soap suds may be emptied upon the bed; they have more or less potash in them. Asparagus sometimes is forced in hotbeds, under green-house benches, in cel lars, etc., by setting mature crowns (,plants) close together and supplying heat and mois ture. A large amount of light is not essential. It is also forced in the field by covering the beds with cloth and applying heat by means of portable steam pipes, either in or upon the ground. In the former case the roots are ruined by the process; in the latter, they are not, but should be given one or more years to recuperate. (Consult reports and bulletins of Cornell Experiment Station and of Missouri Experiment Station). Several other species furnish edible shoots; for example, A. acuti bonus, A. albus and A. tenuifolius, all European swies. The tubers of A. lucidus are eaten in and Japan, where the species is indige nous. The shoots of A. scaber, which resemble those of A. officialis, are inedible because bit ter.