116 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



CULTIVATION OF THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 



IMONG the whole of our esculents there is not another 

 that will yield a more certain and abundant increase 

 than the Jerusalem Artichoke, being liable to no disease, 

 thriving with impunity in almost any soil, and braving 

 with considerable productiveness the worst possible 

 situations. It is an astonishing tuber. The frosts of this country 

 have no effect upon it. It does not even require litter to protect it 

 in any way, while potatoes may be destroyed to any extent by one 

 night's frost. 



Its nutritive properties are greater than those of the potato, 

 which we all so much admire, and which it is to be lamented is likely 

 to perish without any efficient remedy being discovered to prevent 

 the calamity. Let us therefore meet the evil in the best possible 

 way, with the most palatable substitutes. 



Previous to the general cultivation of the potato, the Jerusalem 

 Artichoke, as an article of food, was extensively planted in small 

 gardens. With the French it is in much higher repute than with us, 

 even amongst the middle and lower classes. About a century and a 

 half ago, great attention and care were employed in its cultivation 

 in France, as De la Quintyne informs us, and no doubt much of the 

 success attending these early efforts may be attributed to the well 

 manuring of the ground, to which no small degree of attention was 

 paid, and to giving ample room between the rows, and between the 

 sets in the rows, thus admitting sun and air freely amongst the 

 plants. These particulars were evidently fully understood at that 

 period; let us not overlook them now, but apply them in conjunc- 

 tion with our more extended experience and knowledge in the art of 

 cultivation which has been effected in more recent times. Rely 

 upon it, this root will liberally rsward us for all the care we may 

 bestow upon its culture. In many instances the artichoke bed in 

 this country is assigned to some obscure and sunless corner of the 

 kitchen garden, and one planting often suffices for a generation ; 

 like the horse-radish bed, it is dug amongst, and the roots cut and 

 scattered about year after year, until plants spring up in all direc- 

 tions as thickly as a bed of rushes. The tubers themselves, as may 

 be expected, are small and worthless, because they are grown in land 

 as hard as a footpath, which is completely exhausted of every particle 

 of nourishment. In addition to the remarks already made relative 

 to the cultivation of this artichoke, I beg to give the mode I have 

 successfully pursued in growing it. 



Any soil capable of producing the potato is suitable for the 

 Jerusalem Artichoke, always bearing in mind that, where the former 

 thrives and produces best, the latter will succeed in like manner. 

 Light, friable, loamy soil will always yield the best flavoured tubers. 

 The soil should be deeply dug or subsoil ploughed, and a good dress- 

 ing of farm-yard manure applied. It is quite useless to plant on 

 poor, barren land, if a good crop is to be expected. They should be 

 planted in rows, alternately two feet and four feet apart, and at least 



