ciety," it is stated that the amount of the crop in 

 1841 was 25,000 tons, averaging £45 or $225 

 per ton, whilst in 1843 it was 36,465 tons, and 

 tlie average value from improved quality con- 

 sidered to be £55 or S275 ! This increase of 

 value $573,250 being, if not wholly, certainly in 

 great part attributable to the exertions of that 

 very useful society ! ! 



Why not form such societies in the hemp and 

 flax districts of the United States? "We have 

 no conception until it is systematically underta- 

 ken, how much light may be concenti-ated on 



every industrial pursuit. We respectfully offer 

 our "Farmers' Library and Monthly Jour- 

 nal OF Agriculture " as a medium for col- 

 lecting and a repositoi-y for storing away all 

 such infoniiation for the common benefit, and we 

 earnestly suggest that Editors of Western and 

 South- Western papers, including those of Vir- 

 ginia and North Carolina, should disseminate 

 the articles here given on the subject of flax 

 and hemp, branches of industry susceptible of 

 being much and profitably extended in onr 

 country. 



JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE .. . . {Helianthus tubercsus.) 



Let any important discovery be made that 

 may be beneficial to the manufacturer, the me- 

 chanic, or the mariner, its application is imme- 

 diate, and it at once comes into general use ; not 

 so with the farmer. Let the new product be 

 ever so valuable, the new process ever so cheap, 

 he is slow to adopt the one, or to practice the 

 other. Witness that most precious gift of the 

 new world to the old, the Potato [Solarium tu- 

 berosum.) It required an hundred years from its 

 introduction by Sir Walter Raleigh, to bring it 

 into general use ; and thus it is with the clover, 

 thus with lucerne, thus with plaster, thus with 

 lime, and thus with many of our most valuable 

 agricultural implements. But let us hope that 

 the day of regeneration for the farmer is at hand ; 

 that he will shake off the lethargy that has so 

 long held him enthralled, and take at once the 

 foremost place in the gi-eat race of human im- 

 provement 



These reflections are suggested to the writer 

 by the almost universal neglect of that most val- 

 uable tuber the Jerusalem artichoke, {Helian- 

 thus tuberosus) a plant that (should the rot in 

 the potato not be checked) is destined to take 

 the first rank among roots subjected to field cul- 

 ture. Although a native of the warmer parts of 

 this continent, it is one of the hardiest of all cul- 

 tivated plants, deriving, as it does, through its 

 large leaves, most of its sustenance from the air, 

 it is a great improver, it is wonderfully product- 

 ive, and thrives in the poorest soils. Eagerly 

 sought by horses, cattle, sheep and swine ; it 

 furnislies an aliment as nutritious and healthy as 

 it is cheap. Yvard, the distinguished professor 

 of rural economy at Alfort, whose contributions 

 to agricultural science are so valuable, recom- 

 mended its cultivation both by precept and ex- 

 . ample. Arthur Younc affirms the net profit of 

 (70,-) 



its cultivation to be much greater, beyond all 

 doubt, than that of any other ordmary agricultn- 

 ral production ; and finally it remains in full 

 production on the same spot for ten years or 

 more. The writer will here state what he 

 knows of its cultivation, having witnessed it on 

 a large scale in France on the estate of George 

 Lafayette, brother-in-law to the Count de Tracy. 



As opportunity offers through the winter, the 

 ground is flushed up as deeply as possible with 

 the ordinary two horse plow ; in th^ spring, 

 cross plowed and as thoroughly pulverized as 

 possible ; the land is then laid off with the dou- 

 ble mould-board plow in furrows two feet apart, 

 women and children follow the plo^^■, dropping 

 the whole tubers from eight inches to one foot 

 apart as nearly as may be, another plow follows 

 to cover them up ; when the plants are well up 

 the harrow is run over the field lengthv\-ay the 

 fuiTows, and finallj', one working \vith the 

 shovel-plow or cultivator, when the plants are 

 eighteen inches high, and the crop is made. 



The roots are suflered to remain in the ground 

 to be thrown out with the plow as wanted 

 through the winter, or hogs are turned in upon 

 them. 



By an accurate chemical analysis, the arti- 

 choke is found to contain one-third more nutri- 

 ment than the beet ; it is as much relished by 

 horses as the cairot, is more nutritious and of 

 course much less expensive ; it yields a fair 

 profit on soils too poor for the potato, the beet or 

 the carrot; few plants suffer as little from 

 drouth ; it withstands the most inten.se cold, it 

 is never attacked by insects or disease, and may 

 remain in the ground with perfect safety until 

 used. Waste land stocked with the artichoke 

 and apple trees would make the finest range 

 imac-iuable for swine. F. G. S. 



