MONEY RETURNS PER ACRE. 79 



of injury until it is convenient to lift them; they may 

 then be stored in the same manner as potatoes or any of 

 our root crops. In this country no use is made of the 

 stems or leaves ; they are usually carted off in quantity to 

 the courts or yards, where they make a good dry bottom 

 for the litter, their fleshy stems absorbing a large quan- 

 tity of the liquid secretions. On the Continent they are 

 either cut down before they begin to wither and given 

 to the cattle, or if not required for that purpose, they are 

 treated in the same way as hemp or flax, and a coarse, 

 tough fibre is obtained, which is available for rough cord- 

 age purposes. 1 



In the Journal d' Agriculture Pratique for April, 1 858, 

 M. Doniol, of Barlie're (Haut Loire), gives the details of 

 his cultivation of the Jerusalem artichoke on a poor in- 

 deed, what he terms third-rate soil for a continuous period 

 of fifteen years. He makes no mention of the application 

 of any manure during that period ; his mode of disposing 

 of the produce, however, would no doubt sustain at least 

 the normal fertility of the soil. His practice lias been to 

 keep the plants as nearly as possible at 2^ feet distances 

 apart, and to feed off the stems and leaves as they stood 

 with sheep during the months of October and November. 

 When the crop was cleared off, the tubers were taken up 

 and supplied to the sheep either on the ground or in the 

 stables the difference in the value of the sheep which 

 were bought in October and sold again in April, or 

 when the produce was consumed, representing the money 

 return of the crop. The details that are given refer to one 

 piece of half an hectare (1^ acre) in extent; from which 

 it appears the produce was sufficient to keep eighty 

 sheep, which being purchased in October at 20 francs 

 per head, and sold out in April at 28 frs., gave a gross 



1 Schwerz estimates the produce of dried stalks at about 2 tons per acre. 



