34 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[March, 



ber, although in subsequent years the matu- 

 rity of the crop will commence much earlier 

 in the season. The liead is permitted to grow 

 until the scales spread, and the flower seems 

 about to open. The stem must then be cut off 

 close to the ground, so as to encourage a new 

 growth of suckers before winter. 



Although apparently possessing a hardy 

 constitution, this vegetable is very sensitive to 

 the frost, requiring winter protection in the 

 northern States. In all severe weather, the 

 plants ought to be sheltered by a larger layer 

 of leaves, branches, or coarse litter. When 

 spring opens, all danger of hard frost being 

 passed, and the young buds having fairly 

 started, the litter is to be removed, and the 

 beds leveled, and the ground thoroughly dug. 



An artichoke bed seldom continues iu per- 

 fection for a longer time than six years; after 

 that period the flower heads become gradually 

 smaller and less succulent. 



For seed, select some of the best heads, and 

 permit them to flower. To prevent waterset- 

 tling in the expanded calyx, the stake must be 

 bent over, by being tied to a small stalk. The 

 seed will be ripe in the fall. Gather it when 

 dry, and store it in a cool, dry apartment. Its 

 vegetative power may be depended on for at 

 least three years. 



Use. — As a vegetable, the artichoke is whole- 

 some, but, probably, not very nourishing. It 

 is used in various ways. In Italy, the young 

 tender heads are eaten as a salad, with oil, 

 salt and pepper. The edible pnrts are the re- 

 ceptacle of the flower, called the "bottom," 

 and the fleshy substance on the bottom of the 

 calyx scales. In England, the whole head is 

 usually boiled plain, and the scales are pulled 

 oft' at the table, one or two at a time, dipped 

 in butter and pepper, and stripped of their 

 fleshy part with the teeth. The stalks are 

 eaten in France and Germanj^, after having 

 been boiled and pickled. The flowers hava 

 the property of rennet iu curdling milk, and 

 the juice of the leaves and stalks when pre- 

 pared with bismuth, imparts a permanent gold 

 color to wool, and, when mixed with an equal 

 quantity of white wine, is said to have been 

 successful in the cure of the dropsj'. 



To boil. — Scrape the artichokes and put them 

 in boiling water, with an allowance of a table- 

 spoonful of salt to every two dozen heads. In 

 about two hours time they w^ill become quite 

 tender, when they may be taken from the fire 

 and seasoned with butter and salt. 



To pickle. — Soak the artichokes in salt and 

 water for several days. Drain them and after- 

 wards rub off all the outside skin. To one 

 gallon of vinegar, add one tablespoo.nful of 

 alum, and a teacupful of salt, and turn over the 

 artichokes when it is scalding hot. After re- 

 maining a week, it should be drawn off, scalded 

 and then returned, the process being repeated 

 at intervals of six or seven days, until the 

 heads appear to be thoroughly pickled, when 

 they will be ready for use. — Schenck''s Garden- 

 er'' s Text Book. 



We are not aware that this vegetable has 

 received any special attention by the gardeners 

 of this country, if any at all, or even that it is 

 worthy of cultivation. Our object in tran- 

 scribing its history, mode of cultivation and 

 use, is more to inform the readers of The 

 Farmer of the fact of its existence, and 

 wherein it differs from the vegetable so widely 

 known in this country under the name of 

 " THE artichoke." 



QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 



Mr. J. P., Christiana, Lancaster county, 

 Pa. — The large, white, footless, and black- 

 headed grubs, which you exhibited at the 

 March meeting of the Horticultural Society', 

 are very probably the /arive of the "Broad- 

 necked Prionus, " (Frionus laticotis). You 

 say you took them out of an old apple log that 

 had been lying foiu' or five years, and was 

 going into decay, and ask whether they prefer 

 dead to living wood, and if the former, whether 

 old logs might not be a protection to living 

 trees, as an attraction to these insects. We 

 hardly know how to answer that question, be- 



cause if all that has been reported on the sub- 

 ject be true, they infest both dead and living 

 wood. We have taken them (or allied species) 

 out of Lombardy poplar, cherry and oak, that 

 were in partial decay; and many years ago we 

 suggested that they probably were the cause 

 of the death and decay of the Lombardy pop- 

 lars over all this region of country ; hardly any 

 now remain — all destroyed. But that is not 

 the worst, for in the west, and elsewhere, they 

 are knoum to infest the roots of the living 

 grape, apple and pear, and from their great 

 size — two and a half inches long — and their 

 three years larva life, if they should Ijecome 

 numerous, it is very evident that they would 

 be a most formidable enemy to the fruit- 

 grower, particularly because they work con- 

 cealed, or imder groiuid, and therefore difti- 

 cult to approach with a remedy. They also 

 infest the Osage orange, and are saitl to even 

 attack cornstalks; but this latter is questiona- 

 ble, because they would not have time to ma- 

 ture therein, unless they passed to or from 

 some other substance. The beetle that de- 

 velops from this larva, is a large black, or 

 deep brown insect, the females of which are 

 fully three inches long, but the males are much 

 less. They belong to the family Prion id a in 

 the great group or section of Longhorned bee- 

 tles (Longicornia)- There are several species 

 of them, and also others allied to tliera; there- 

 fore without breeding them, it cannot pusi- 

 tiveh/ be stated, to which species they belong; 

 but tlie probabilities are favorable to the spe- 

 cies we have named. 



Will Mr. P. send us in April or May half a 

 dozen specimens of the largest he can find, 

 together with some' of the decayed wood. The 

 beetle appears iu .June and July, and ought to 

 be killed wherever it is found. It is attracted 

 at night by a bright light, and in this way we 

 have captured a dozen in a single evening. 



THE CENTURY WEATHER REPORT. 



The past winter having been suffi- 

 ciently remarkable for its mildness to employ 

 the pens of the " weatherwise " nearly over 

 the whole country, many of whom claimed 

 that there was nothing like it within the re- 

 collection of the "oldest inhabitant; wethere- 

 fore copy the following, which goes to show 

 that although the oldest inhabitant may fail in 

 memory, there is still a record extant tliat is 

 independent of and anterior to his pretensions 

 in meteorological lore. At best, we are but 

 very short-memoried mortals. We are ai)t to 

 regard the immediately pending condition of 

 things as the hardest, the didlest, the hottest, 

 the coldest, the mildest, the wettest, the dry- 

 est, the briskest or the wckedest that has ever 

 before been experienced. If, however, we only 

 turn over a few pages of the past, we will find 

 that not only history, but also the meteorolo- 

 gical phenomena of the world " repeat them- 

 selves," and that the like had been seen and 

 felt before. 



' ' The remarkably mild weather of the past 

 month has sadly puzzled the wiseacres who 

 had predicted an extraordinary cold winter, 

 commencing early in November. And even 

 the " oldest inliabitants " have set their wits 

 to work trying to account for the backward- 

 ness of the season. As a consequence, items 

 are pitblished in newspapers of all sections 

 furnishing parallels to tlie seemingly unpar- 

 alleled mildness. Another interesting fact has 

 been recalled in this connection, to wit, tliat 

 the first month of this centennial winter 

 closely resembles that of 177(i. The news- 

 papers of tliat day speak of the extraordinary 

 weather. It was even said that the lack of 

 the usual ice in Boston harbor prevented 

 Washington from crossing his forces and at- 

 tempting a surprise of the city, and the Amer- 

 icans were enabled to continually send forth 

 vessels from all parts of the harbor to the 

 West Indies for munitions of war. Tlie mild 

 weather also allowed Gen. Schuyler, in tlie 

 first days of January, to dispatch his well- 

 planned little expedition up the Mohawk val- 

 ley to surprise the hiahlanders under Johnson. 

 On the contrary, the news that year from 



England indicated an intensely cold winter. 

 The weather records of Philadelphia disclose 

 many facts worthy of note in this connection. 

 In comparing the mean temperature of the 

 past month with that of each January of the 

 last century it is found that in but seven in- 

 stances was the temperature as high as in the 

 month just closed. Last Friday the thermom- 

 eter reached TCP, a point which, during the 

 whole century, was only equalled in the years 

 1790 and 1870, and was not exceeded at either 

 period. The day therefore may be regarded 

 as a remarkable one. The mean temperature, 

 however, for the past month does not reach 

 the mean temperature attained in either of 

 the years alluded to, but still the weather for 

 the month was unusually mild. According to 

 the records of the Pennsylvania Hospital, the 

 mean temperature for the last month was 38^, 

 the minimum falling to only 17° above zero. 

 This was 6'- above the average for January, 

 and during the entire century that point was 

 equaled only in this section in the years 1802, 

 '23, '43, '58, '03, '70. In 1790 the mean tem- 

 peratm-e was 44°, the mildest January on re- 

 cord. Fogs prevailed iu the morning, but the 

 hot sun soon dispersed them. At that time 

 the mercury often ran up to 70° in the shade 

 at mid-day. In Pierce's report of the weather, 

 it is stated that boys were seen swimming in 

 the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. This un- 

 usual weather was continued up to February 7. 

 In 1802 the trees and shrubbery were blossom- 

 ing in January, and in 1828 tlie Delaware was 

 as free from ice as in June. The first month of 

 1870 was tlie warmest January on record after 

 that of 1790. While in nearly all these cases the 

 winter has been remarkably mild, there have 

 been instances noted when the winter did not 

 really commence until February, and contin- 

 ued far into the spring season, at one time up 

 to June. Even during those winters when 

 little or no snow fell, the summer following 

 the unusual season was generally reported to 

 be an exceedingly fine one. So it will be seen 

 that the clerk of the weather is such an ec- 

 centric genius as to def}' the laws of prece- 

 dent, refusing to do the bidding of those fogies 

 who claim to know by the color of a goose's 

 breast bone under what conditions he shall 

 present himself in this section. " — Fhiladelphia 

 Times of 'id inst. 



^ 



The intei-esting paper on " The Potato's 

 Enemies" on the 36th page of this issue, 

 which originally appeared in the West Chester 

 Local News, was sent to us some weeks ago 

 by Mr. John I. Carter, of the " Experimental 

 Farm" at West Grove, Pa., for insertion in 

 The Farmer, if advisable, but it came to 

 hand too late for our January number, and 

 we had laid it away too carefully to find it in 

 time for our February number. It is, how- 

 ever, one of those things that will not spoil, 

 if used before the first of April or May. and 

 therefore we give it a place in our present num- 

 ber. Although occasional tubers of the potato 

 may be found every autumn, when they are 

 raised, with cavities gnawed into them,. 

 yet we do not think the depredations of 

 either of the insects named (if they are cor- 

 rectly named) has yet amounted to a serious 

 infestation in this region of Pennsylvania. Dr. 

 Hunt is probably on the right track, and in 

 addition to the works to whicWhe has referred, 

 we would call the attention of potato growers 

 to the investigations made by the Agricultural 

 Department at Washington City, which are 

 published and illustrated in the reports of 

 1872, 1873 and 1874, a condensation of which 

 was published in The Lancaster Farmer 

 of Feliruary, 1875. It is probable, however, 

 that the wounded portions of the tubers may 

 furnish a ]irolific seat for the development of 

 the fungoid disease, but it is certain that it 

 exists independent of such conditions. 

 ♦ 



Now that the season for practical operations 

 on the form is opening, every tiller of the soil, 

 whether he owns one acre or one hundred, 

 should subscribe for The Lancaster Far- 

 mer, if he is not already a subscriber. It will 

 prove a good investment. 



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