184 LANDSCAPES AND PICTURESQUE GARDENS. 



chokes are the best suited for cultivation in this climate as a 

 crop for hogs, sheep, and dairies, of any article that we have 

 yet tried ; and, besides the use of this crop for stock, which 

 many writers consider to be equal to potatoes, they are also 

 recommended highly as an article of human diet. It is true 

 that, when boiled, they do not possess that peculiar farina- 

 ceous quality, that is so much esteemed in the best sorts 

 of potatoes ; but it is said that, when roasted, they are a 

 very delicate article for the table, their taste then resembling 

 the ground-nut of this country. 



The only objection we have heard stated to this vegeta- 

 ble as an article of field-culture is, that, when once suffered 

 to enter, it will take exclusive possession of a soil ; and 

 thus, when a change of crops is desired, becomes a most 

 troublesome weed. But by turning in a sufficient number 

 of hogs, the artichokes may be entirely eradicated ; and, 

 probably, a poor soil, which would answer no other pur- 

 pose of culture, might be planted with the Jerusalem 

 artichoke, and converted into a permanent pasture for 

 swine. If not overstocked with the animals, the plants 

 would keep possession of the soil, which they would meli- 

 orate ; and when it should be wished to change the crop, 

 turn in hogs enough to root out the artichokes. 



LANDSCAPES and PICTURESQUE GARDENS. 

 The following article was written expressly for this work, 

 by Mr. A. Parmentier, of New York, a French horticultur- 

 ist of much taste and science : 



It has been reserved for the good taste of our age to 

 make many advantageous changes in the embellishment 

 of gardens, and to reinstate Nature in the possession of 

 those rights from which she has too long been banished 

 by an undue regard to. symmetry. 



Our ancestors gave to every part of a garden all the ex- 

 actness of geometric forms : they seem to have known of 

 no other way to plant trees, except in straight lines ; a sys- 

 tem totally ruinous to the beauty of the prospect. We 

 now see how ridiculous it was, except in the public gar- 

 dens of the city, to apply the rules of architecture to the 

 embellishment of gardens. 



The majestic trunk is now allowed the liberty of dis- 

 playing its form, or of following in its vigorous shoots the 

 plan of nature. Gardens are now treated like landscapes, 

 the charms of which are not to be improved by any rulea 

 of art. 



The advantages of these changes are so manifest, and 



