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

In Short

F. M. Hexamer presents an exhaustive, early-twentieth-century guide to the practical cultivation, commercial management, and preservation of asparagus. Grounded in contemporary agricultural science and real-world farm data, the treatise covers everything from identifying ornamental botanicals and selecting high-yield roots to managing regional soil profiles, combating insect pests, and organizing industrial canneries. It endures as a definitive historical window into American market gardening, showing how traditional horticultural wisdom evolved into modern agri-business through methodical testing and careful field practices.

The Story

Hexamer opens his manual with a survey of the plant's history and botanical lineage, detailing how wild coastal perennials transformed into prized culinary delicacies and ornamental parlor greens across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Moving quickly from botany to practical agriculture, he establishes that successful cultivation rests entirely on fundamental choices made long before harvest. He compares regional European and American cultivars, demonstrating how named varieties reflect localized soil conditions rather than fixed genetic traits, and offers experimental data on seed production, crown selection, and field layouts.

From these initial choices, the text moves into the field, detailing the physical preparation of the earth. Hexamer walks through deep plowing, subsoiling, trenching, and manuring, insisting that proper spacing and root placement dictate the longevity of a plantation. He explains that traditional, crowded garden beds inevitably degrade, whereas modern wide spacing—allowing four or five feet between rows—ensures long-term vigor and crop quality. The narrative then follows the growing cycle: early seasonal cultivation, surface weed management, strategic post-harvest leveling, and autumn stalk clearing to prevent seed drop and insect infestations.

The manual next shifts to commercial operations, tracking the journey from harvest to market. Hexamer details proper cutting techniques, sorting criteria, and the economics of tying materials, demonstrating how simple innovations like rubber bands save labor and improve market appeal. He investigates specialized growing techniques, including winter forcing in heated greenhouses, field-covered hotbeds, and steam-heated subsoil trenches. This leads into an industrial analysis of commercial preservation, walking step-by-step through high-volume Long Island and California canneries where steam retorts, automatic elevators, and precise venting processes make asparagus available year-round.

In its final chapters, the book turns to agricultural protection and regional adaptations. Hexamer examines major biological threats—specifically the common asparagus beetle and fungal rust—detailing their life cycles, natural predators like the spotted ladybird, and early mechanical or chemical controls. He concludes by contrasting specialized growing operations across New England, Long Island, New Jersey, the American South, and California, proving that even seemingly barren drift sands can yield exceptionally high profits when matched with proper fertilizers, intelligent labor, and large-scale operational planning.

How It Unfolds

Botanical foundations The text classifies diverse decorative species alongside edible strains, laying out the structural differences between roots, crowns, and shoots.

Soil and seed selection Hexamer compares transplanting one-year-old crowns against direct-sowing methods, emphasizing that high-yielding plantations require rigorous culling of weak stock.

Trenching and root placement The guide outlines precise trenching depths and root distribution, urging growers to spread rootlets horizontally to protect crowns and secure future yields.

Seasonal cultivation Instructions move through early spring ridging, summer weed control, and post-harvest flat-harrowing to keep the field healthy.

Harvesting and marketing The focus shifts to field-cutting methods, mechanical bunching devices, and economic comparisons of tying materials for shipping crates.

Industrial forcing and preservation The text covers advanced forcing techniques alongside factory-scale canning operations, detailing steam sterilization tanks and vent-soldering procedures.

Pest management and regional methods The final chapters detail biological controls for destructive insects and fungi, concluding with regional case studies from Long Island sand dunes to California river deltas.

The People

F. M. Hexamer The author acts as an authoritative, practical guide who favors tested, evidence-based horticulture over tradition. He seeks to modernize asparagus culture by urging growers to abandon crowded, old-fashioned plots in favor of wide spacing, aggressive fertilizing, and strict field hygiene.

Prof. William J. Green A horticulturist at the Ohio Experiment Station whose field experiments demonstrate that male asparagus plants yield significantly more weight than seed-bearing female plants, providing growers with concrete data to optimize crop production.

Messrs. Hudson & Sons Leading Long Island canners who purchase hundreds of acres of cheap, sandy scrub-oak land, proving that large-scale investment, proper fertilizing, and industrial processing can turn seemingly worthless drift sand into profitable asparagus farms.

Professors G. E. Stone and R. E. Smith Massachusetts Experiment Station researchers who conduct early spraying trials against asparagus rust, identifying the mechanical limits of contemporary equipment and proposing horse-mounted spray rigs to navigate narrow crop rows.

In Its Own Voice

"The proper planting of the roots is the most critical point in asparagus culture, as upon the manner in which this is performed--more than upon other detail--depends the success, yield, duration, and profit of the plantation."

This warning underpins Hexamer's philosophy: careful labor during field setup pays compounding dividends over decades.

"Seed bearing is an exhaustive process, and, as might be supposed, those plants that have produced seed have less vigor than those that have not."

Hexamer highlights the physiological differences between plants, translating botanical observations directly into practical harvesting advantages.

"Whether away from a saline atmosphere a light soil would be as favorable as a heavy one for the asparagus is a question that practical experiment only can settle."

The author rejects rigid agricultural dogma, insisting that local testing and hard data should guide farming choices.

What It's Really About

Beneath its instructional details, the book argues for applying scientific discipline, economic calculation, and systematic labor to everyday agriculture. Hexamer treats the farm as a specialized production facility where profit depends on understanding biological life cycles, minimizing waste, and adopting modern technologies. The text explores how intensive management can overcome natural liabilities—turning poor sand into valuable real estate, controlling insect outbreaks through biological predators, and extending brief harvest seasons through industrial canning and winter forcing. Ultimately, it presents farming not as a static tradition, but as an evolving discipline driven by field testing and systematic improvement.

Why Read It Today

Gardeners, agricultural historians, and homesteaders will appreciate this concise, clear look at turn-of-the-century market gardening. Reading Hexamer feels like walking through an experimental plot with a patient, exceptionally knowledgeable farm mentor who values hard evidence over inherited habits. The prose is clean, plain, and free of filler, grounded entirely in real-world measurements, tools, and field trial data.

While readers should keep in mind its vintage context—such as early chemical applications and early-1900s labor rates—the core horticultural advice remains remarkably sound. Its instructions on root placement, bed spacing, male-plant productivity, and organic field sanitation are just as relevant to home gardeners today as they were a century ago. It stands as a straightforward, rewarding look at how thoughtful design and attentive care transform simple earth into a lasting, highly productive crop.