CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



fatten on it with great rapidity. It imparts a richness and 

 flavour to the meat which corn fed animals never possess. The 

 consequence is, that his mutton has acquired a high repute, is 

 quickly sold, and at a considerable advance over the corn or 

 grain fed mutton, which is an additional gain over that acquir- 

 ed in the difference of feed. 



Yield. We have before remarked, that from the beet, in a 

 favourable season, on a good soil and proper cultivation, very 

 large returns are occasionally obtained. In France, the ave- 

 rage is reckoned at fifteen tons per acre. In this country, 

 with the same careful tillage, the average would, no doubt, 

 double that of France. It does not, probably, at the present 

 time, fall below twenty-five tons to the acre. But it should 

 be recollected that here the roots grow to a much greater size 

 than in Europe.* WILLIAM ANDENREID, Esq., of Schuylkill 

 county, Pennsylvania, raised in the year 1S35, of the sugar- 

 beet, the enormous crop of sixty-two and a half tons to the 

 acre. JOHN SANFORD, of Marcellus, New York, has raised, 

 according to the Genesee Farmer, two thousand bushels to the 

 acre. These are uncommon crops. The usual yield, where 

 soil and all other circumstances are favourable to the growth of 

 the plant, is from eight hundred to one thousand bushels to 

 the acre. 



X. THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 



THIS plant is, like all the plants of the sunflower genus, a 

 native of America; and notwithstanding it belongs to our 

 southern section, it is one of the hardiest of our cultivated 

 plants, very productive, easily propagated, and growing on the 



foorest soils. Its stems vary from five to ten feet in height, 

 t may be propagated with the greatest ease from tubers, like 

 the potato or from its seeds. It grows rapidly, and may be 

 cultivated like the potato; but the intervals between both the 

 plants and rows should be larger. It may be planted in 

 autumn; but if planted in the spring, it will be ready for use 

 in September. 



It is customary, with some who grow this plant, to cut the 

 stems or stalks even in July, to prevent their falling down; 

 and, on the continent of Europe, the stems and leaves are used 

 as green and dried fodder for cattle; but we believe this prac- 

 tice has not as yet been introduced into England. The tubers 



* JAMES PEDDER, Esq. 



