153 



FARMEKS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



ties, the demand has increased with surprising ra- 

 pidity, or the two sorts which I earnestly recom- 

 mend, one is called, if 1 mistake not, Radford's 

 Scarlet Goliah; and the other is a small red varie- 

 ty, which is crimson throughout when boiled or 

 baked. These will supply the table from April to 

 August, and suthce for every purpose. 



Culture.— \^Qi the ground be ])repared precisely 

 as for asparagus beds. Select clean oHsets, with 

 two or three l)old eyes: the first week in March is 

 a very suitable season. The ej'cs or buds of the 

 Goliah will be of a deep, rich red, hence its name: 

 the leaves, however,. and stalks are green, though 

 of different hues, and the latter are spotted and 

 streaked with red. In the smaller pink variety 

 the red tint prevails throughout. 



The plants of the gre^t Goliah should be set 

 firmly in the soil, five feet apart, or five feet one 

 way and lour feet another; the smaller kind may 

 be set three feet asunder, plant from plant, giving 

 a free watering to each to settle the soil among 

 the roots; Dry weather, an open condition of the 

 ground, and a temperate, unfrosty state of the air, 

 should be preferred. When the growth becomes 

 established, the ground must be kept free from 

 weeds; and if dry\veather supervene, water ought 

 to be freely given around the roots, two or three 

 times, with intervals of lour or five days. 



Not a leaf or stalk ought to be touched during 

 the first year; and in autumn, when the leaves are 

 all decayed, they should be laid in little trenches 

 formed along the centre of the spaces between the 

 rows, sprinkled with a handful or two of salt, and 

 covered witJa the earth that had been digged out. 

 Thus the plant will itself furnish a portion of the 

 manure that will annually be required. As win- 

 ter approaches, a coating of well decomposed sta- 

 ble manure or leaves, or a mixture ol both, two or 

 three inches deep, should be laid round each plant, 

 to the extent of two feet; and in the open weather 

 of February, the whole bed must be forked over. 



As a proof of the excessive productiveness of 

 ihe Scarlet Goliah, I need only mention, that, in 

 ihe second week of March, 1831, twelve plants 

 were set in ground prepared lor asparagus. In 

 June, the leaves met, and the whole plot was co- 

 vered. In 1832, the plants yielded profusely, 

 man}' leaves measured above a yard and a half 

 over the surface, the footstalks being an inch and 

 a half broad, and from two to three feet long. The 

 outside leaves were, as required for use, stripped 

 off by an oblique pulK not cut; the family was am- 

 ply supplied till July and August,' and yet the 

 plants increased; the neighbours also were furnish- 

 ed with h'aves throughout the sunnner, and with 

 offset plants in the succeeding spring. During 

 the two past seasons the root stocks increased to 

 such a size, that, when it became needful to re- 

 move some, it required a barrow to contain the 

 weighty mass that was raised, after great labor, 

 from the soil. If any one try the experiment in 

 fiivorable soil, and with any thing like judicious 

 management, he will scarcely fail to discover that 

 the growth and production of the plant will exceed 

 every demand that can be justly made upon it. 



From the Uuiuterly Journal of Agriculture. 

 CULTURE OF ARTICIIOKKS. 



By J. Towers. 

 jlrtichoke ( Cynara Scolymus) Syngenesia Po- 



lygamia jEquaUs (CI. xix. ord. 1.,) Linncei; tribe 

 CARi>uACi!:iE; among the Compositce or the com- 

 pound flowers of the natural "Jussieuan''' system, 

 is, as the tribal name implies, nearly related to the 

 thistles; the observant natural physiologist must be 

 aware of this tioni the imbricated order of flower- 

 ing, and the dense close head which contains the 

 bluish flowers, and the seeds surmounted by a fea- 

 thery down (pappus.) In England, the full heads 

 only are eaten boiled; these heads consist of a 

 fleshy receptacle, on which the flowers and their 

 bristly appendages are based; and of an alternating 

 series of scaly bracteas or floral leaves (involu- 

 crum,) that are furnished with a pulpy substance 

 at and above their point of union with the base. 



Culture. — All that has been previously said as 

 to the i^reparation of the ground for the asparagus, 

 will apply to this valuable autumnal vegetable : it 

 delights in a rich and light soil; therefore a sandy 

 turf will supply the appropriate medium of growth. 

 It is propagated by suckers or ofiisets taken from 

 old plants, and planted in March and April, either 

 in a bed of three rows, lour or five feet asunder, 

 the plants three feet from one another, or in single 

 rows between other vegetables. The soil ought 

 to be previously digged and laid even; and the 

 line, being strained very tight, each sucker should 

 be planted by the dibble or garden trowel, and fix- 

 ed securely in the soil. Nothing tends so effectu- 

 ally to promote the growth of any sucker or offset 

 as to place its base, and the lower parts or joints o( 

 its stem, firmly in recently moved ground. The 

 vital principle thereby becomes stimulated, and, to 

 speak chemically, is acted upon by the electro- 

 gaseous products of the soil at the moment of their 

 developemenl. Water, if the weather and soil be 

 dry at the time of planting, ought to be then freely 

 given around the plants, and, subsequentlv, more 

 than once, in order to fix them in the soil, and pre- 

 vent stagnation of the vital fluids. 



The subsequent culture consists in keeping the 

 ground clean and moderately open; and, at the ap- 

 proach ol'li'osty weather, to draw earth about the 

 stems, as in landing up celery, but not bringing it 

 to so acute a ridge at the top. Artichokes may 

 be abundantly produced in the autumn of the first 

 year; some plants wiU not, however, be prolific. 

 The fruit ought always to be gathered, and the 

 stems cut close off prior to the winter earthing up. 

 In the second season the plants will become abun- 

 dantly more prolific, and great care should be ta- 

 ken to preserve them from extreme frost by straw, 

 haulm, or ever<^reen boughs, laid upon the ridges 

 of soil so as to form a sort of roof over the herbage; 

 but these coverings should be removed in rainy 

 weather. The heads may be preserved through- 

 out the winter and early spring months, by insert- 

 ing the lower ends of the stems in sand, under 

 shelter of an oat-house, or cool dry cellar. 



The artichoke plant produces abundance of 

 suckers, which ought to be detached in March- 

 not in the torpid season, and of the best^of these, 

 fresh jjlaiitations may be formed. We sugijeet, 

 on the ground of the doctrine of radical excretion, 

 that, if the plants stand in single rows widely 

 apart, between which a rank of potatoes, beansj 

 or peas, be grown — the new suckers be planted on 

 the site of such crojis, in order to reap the benefit 

 to be derived ii'om the matters ejected into the 

 soil by their excretory organs, and by the actual 

 deposition of detached vegetable fibres. . 



