measure two
inches in diameter, and even when twelve to fifteen inches long are
perfectly tender and of a delicate light green color.

_Hub._--Originated in New Hampshire several years ago, and was
introduced by Joseph Breck & Sons, Boston, Mass. Although not generally
catalogued, it is a distinct and valuable variety that has made a
decided record for itself in the tests of the Kansas Experiment Station,
where its yield, by weight, was greater than any other.

_Mammoth._--This is a somewhat indefinite term, as almost any prominent
seedsman and grower who has a particularly good and large strain of
asparagus suffixes it to his own name. Among the best known of these are
Vick's Mammoth, Maule's Mammoth, Prescott's Mammoth, etc.

_Moore's Cross-bred._--This originated with J. B. Moore, who for twenty
years was awarded the first prize on asparagus at the exhibitions of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, at one of which the weight of
twelve stalks was 4 pounds 6-1/4 ounces. It retains the head close until
the stalks are quite long, and is of uniform color, while for tenderness
and eating quality it is excelled by none. It is particularly
recommended for cultivation in New England.

_Palmetto._--A variety of Southern origin, but suitable for the North
also. At the South it is somewhat earlier than Conover's Colossal, but
its great advantage is that it is almost destitute of, what dealers
call, culls, nearly all shoots being of a uniform and large size. The
bunch from which the engraving (Fig. 12) was made measured twenty-two
inches in circumference, and contained forty-eight stalks of nine
inches in length and remarkably uniform in size. It was taken on March
30th from a field of fifty acres, near Charleston, S. C. But the
greatest point in its favor is its comparative security from the attacks
of rust.

[Illustration: FIG. 12--BUNCH OF PALMETTO ASPARAGUS]

_Purple Top_ and _Green Top_.--These were the only distinct sorts in
cultivation before the introduction of Conover's Colossal, but are now
almost unknown to the trade and cultivators.

EUROPEAN VARIETIES

The named varieties of asparagus of European origin are very numerous,
as almost every locality in which asparagus is cultivated extensively
and successfully has given its name to a strain more or less distinct.
Generally these varieties differ only in a single characteristic, and
these differences, for the most part, are so little that they are lost