KEEPING ONE COW. 75 



prevent it from spreading. No ashes or lime should ever be 

 applied to it. 



Regarding the material for absorbing the liquid excretions of the 

 cow, nothing better can be found than prepared muck; but as this 

 is seldom obtainable, the scrapings of the streets of a city, or even 

 of a public road, may be used instead. If these cannot be had, 

 the surface soil of the dairy farm answer the purpose. What- 

 ever substance is employed must be thoroughly dried. The middle 

 of summer is the proper time to prepare it. About four cart loads 

 of it, as dry as they can be made, should be kept in the stable, cr 

 in some other place where it is not liable to attract moisture ; and 

 that amount will last the year round. 



CONCLUSIONS ABOUT ARTICHOKES. 



I have now given my instructions for keeping a cow, and it is 

 evident from what I have written, that the Jerusalem Artichoke is 

 my main dependence for her support. The other points that I 

 have touched upon, are of minor importance, when compared 

 with the value that I have attached to this plant. My own ex- 

 perience with the plant satisfies me that I have not overstated its 

 merits. On rich land a single stalk will produce from a peck to 

 half a bushel of the tubers. Last year was an exceptionally un- 

 favorable one in this locality, on account of drouth in summer 

 and fall ; and yet the artichokes that I planted between the trees 

 in my peach orchard yielded abundantly. I have fattened cattle 

 on them without any additional food excepting a little hay, until 

 they were fit for the butcher ; and my horses thrive on them when 

 fed in connection with hay, doing full work without grain. A 

 brother of mine planted artichokes in a field that had been in 

 cultivation for more than a century, and yet in spite of the drouth, 

 of indifferent culture without manure, and of an early frost that 

 prematurely killed the plants, the yield amounted to between five 

 hundred and six hundred bushels to the acre. 



RURAL ECONOMY. 



Boussingault in his "Rural Economy," pp. 159-160 says : " The 

 Jerusalem Artichoke rises to a hight of from, nine to ten feet ; 

 it flowers late, and I have not yet seen it ripen its seeds. It is 

 propagated by the tubers which it produces, and which are re- 

 garded, for good reason, a most excellent food for cattle. * * There 

 are few plants more hardy and so little nice about the soil as the 

 Jerusalem Artichoke ; it succeeds everywhere with the single con- 

 dition that the ground be not wet. * * Of all the plants that engage 



