vas or muslin is stretched
over the frames. No difficulty has been found in starting the asparagus
into growth in January and February. The cover is left on and the heat
kept up until all danger of frost is past, when the canvas is removed
and the plants grow naturally out-of-doors. The secret of this method
will no doubt be found to lie in allowing the plantation to become very
thoroughly established (at least, three or four years old) before
forcing is attempted, in the very best tillage and fertilizing during
the summer while the plants are growing, in taking off the cover just as
soon as settled weather comes, and in not cutting the plants until after
that time."

XIII

PRESERVING ASPARAGUS

CANNING

The canning factory has made asparagus a vegetable for every day of the
year instead of being a luxury for a few weeks, as was formerly the
case. The canners have made it a farm crop instead of a garden product.
To a great extent canning has transformed the farm into a garden,
increasing the profits from every acre planted many fold. In many
localities an acre of what was formerly considered a sandy waste is now
yielding more than double the net profit of the best acre under
cultivation in ordinary farm crops.

_Eastern methods._--The pioneers in this industry on Long Island, N. Y.,
have been the Messrs. Hudson & Sons, who have extensive plants at
Mattituck and Riverhead, each of them as complete as mechanical skill
and enterprise can make them. Each plant consists of a storehouse, 50 x
150 feet; a packing-house, 40 x 125 feet; and a can manufactory, 25 x 60
feet. A steam-engine of ten horse-power is required for hoisting,
pumping, and for generating gas for the soldering-heaters, and a boiler
of one hundred horse-power to generate steam for sterilizing the
asparagus. A perspective view of one of the plants is seen in Fig. 36.

[Illustration: FIG. 36--PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF A LONG ISLAND ASPARAGUS
CANNERY]

The asparagus, as it comes from the growers, is in bunches seven and
one-half inches long and weighing two and one-half pounds each. These
bunches are put under a cutter and cut to six and five-eighths inches;
they are then untied and put in a tank four feet wide by eight feet long
and two feet deep, in which they are washed as carefully as it is
possible to do it. It is then hoisted up to what is called the blanching
tank, which contains forty gallons. In this it is kept at a scalding
heat for one-hal