when grown under different climatic and soil conditions. The
best-informed authorities recognize three cultivated varieties, which
have distinct commercial characteristics and whose seeds reproduce them
in the seedlings.

_German Giant._--This variety embraces most of the German and French
sorts--the Giant Dutch Purple, Ulm Giant, Giant Brunswick, Large Erfurt,
Early Darmstadt, and many others.

_Argenteuil._--Of this three sub-varieties are recognized--the early,
intermediate, and late; and these are the kinds grown almost exclusively
in the vicinity of Paris, France, where its culture and improvement have
steadily developed for centuries. Under good culture the late Argenteuil
produces stalks from three to six inches in circumference, at eight
inches below the tips.

_Yellow Burgundy._--The distinctive characteristic of this variety is
that the young shoots below the surface of the soil are light yellow
instead of white to tips, being greenish-yellow. It is also claimed to
be more rust-resisting than other European sorts.

VARIETY TESTS

To determine the comparative effects of manuring on different varieties
of asparagus, and also their comparative earliness, Prof. S. C. Mason
and his assistant, W. L. Hall, of the Kansas Experiment Station, have
made some interesting and instructive experiments, the results of which
are given in Bulletin 70, as follows:

"The seed of ten varieties of asparagus was planted. A good stand was
secured, and the young plants were cultivated during the summer in the
usual way. Early the following spring the entire patch was dug up and
the roots heeled in. The same ground was then prepared for a permanent
plantation, by plowing it deeply and marking it with furrows four feet
apart. These furrows were made as deep as possible, but after the loose
soil had run back into them they were on the bottom hardly six inches
below the level of the ground. In these furrows the roots of the
seedlings were planted (240 feet of row for each variety), making
altogether a patch of 35.25 square rods, or a little more than one-fifth
of an acre (.22 of an acre). The plants were set about a foot apart in
the row, and covered only an inch or two above the crown, leaving along
the rows depressions some two inches deep, which were gradually filled
up during the summer, by the many cultivations. During the winter the
stalks were cleared off, but nothing was done with the patch in the
spring more than to cut