160 JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 



being carried on for nnany years in the same piece ; and after the 

 harvest, in spite of every disposition to take up all the tubers, 

 enough constantly escape detection to stock the land for the ft»llo\v- 

 ing year, so that the surface appears literally covered with the young 

 plants on the return of spring, and it is necessary to thin them b> 

 hoeing. The impossibility of taking away the whole of the tubers, 

 and their power of resisting the hardest frosts of winter, is an ob- 

 stacle almost insurmountable to the introduction of this plant, as one 

 element in a regular rotation. Experience more and more confirms 

 the propriety of setting aside a patch of land for the growth of this 

 productive and very valuable vegetable root. 



Of all the plants that engage the husbandman, the Jerusalem 

 artichoke is that which produces the most at the least expense of 

 manure and of manual labor. Kade states that a square patch of 

 Jerusalem artichokes in a garden was still in full productive vigor 

 at the end of thirty-three years, throwing out stems from 7 to 10 

 feet in length, although for a very long lime the plant had neither 

 received any care nor any manure.* 



I could quote many examples of the great reproductive power of 

 the helianthus ; I can affirm, nevertheless, that in order to obtain 

 abundant crops, it is necessary to afford a little manure. I shall 

 show in another chapter, however, that this is manure well bestowed. 



Like all vegetables having numerous and large leaves, the helian- 

 thus requires air and light ; it ought, therefore, to be properly spaced 

 The original planting of course takes place in lines, but in the suc- 

 ceeding crops, and those which are derived from small tubers acci- 

 dentally left in the ground, the order is of course lost ; it is only 

 necessary to destroy a sutficirnt number of the young sprouts which 

 show themselves in the spring, to leave those plants that are pre- 

 served with a sufficient space between them. When the plants are 

 somewhat advanced, the ground should receive one or two diggings 

 with the spade, and a hoeing or two to destroy weeds. 



The leaves of the helianthus arc used in many places as forage, 

 the stems being cut a few inches from the ground ; the gathering 

 takes place at diflerent periods of the year, but probably to the detri 

 ment of the tubers ; iv may be lucrative to destine the leaves for llv 

 nutriment of cattle, but I believe we have to choose between th' 

 green crop and the crop of tubers. It is unqiK'stionablc that tin 

 premature removal of the green stems must prove injurious to tho 

 roots; in my own farm the leaves are never removed, and my opir 

 ion is, that it is vastly more advantaget)us to doj)iMid upon the crop 

 of tubers alone. The tubers are gathered as they are wanted, f«>. , 

 not dreading the frost, they remain in the ground the whole of the 

 winter; they do not require, like the potato, to be collected and pit- 

 ted at a certain period ; they require no particular situation, no pur 

 ticular care for their preservation ; the «)iily disadvantage that ac 

 companies their being left in the ground, is that iluring very hard 

 frosts the labor required to get at them is very great. During win 



* Srhwrrix <^nltiirr of F<ir <£f> riTnl*. 



