32 ARTICHOKE. 



containing too large a proportion of sand, is liable to become 

 violently hot in summer, for this is extremely injurious to 

 these plants. After the plants are up, they should be kept 

 free from weeds, and the earth often loosened around them. 



The business of transplanting may be done in cloudy or 

 wet weather, at any time after the plants are from nine to 

 twelve inches high. Having fixed upon a proper soil and 

 situation, lay on it a good quantity of rotten dung, and trench 

 the ground one good spade or eighteen inches deep, incor- 

 porating the manure therewith ; this being done, take up 

 the plants, and after shortening their tap roots a little, and 

 dressing their leaves, plant them with a dibble,- in rows five 

 feet asunder, and v two feet from plant to plant, leaving part 

 of their green tops above ground, and the hearts of the plants 

 free from any earth over them, and give each plant a little 

 water to settle the roots. 



The winter dressing of Artichokes is an important opera- 

 tion ; on. it depends much of their future success. This 

 should not be given them as long as the season continues 

 mild, that they may have all possible advantage of growth, 

 and be gradually inured to the increasing cold weather ; but 

 it should not be deferred too late, lest by the sudden setting 

 in of hard frost, to which we are subject in the Northern 

 States, the work be neglected, and the plants consequently 

 exposed to devastation and loss. 



In the first place, cut all the large leaves close to the 

 ground, leaving the small ones which rise from the hearts 

 of the plants ; after this, line and mark out a trench in the 

 middle, between each row, from fourteen to sixteen inches 

 wide, presuming that the rows are five feet apart, as directed. 

 Then dig the surface of the beds lightly from trench to 

 trench, burying the weeds, and as you proceed, gather the 

 earth around the crowns of the plants to the height of about 

 six inches, placing it in gently between the young rising leaves, 

 without burying them entirely under it ; this done, dig the 

 trenches one spade deep, and distribute the earth equally 



