PART II 



CHAPTER IX 



VEGETABLES: THEIR DEVELOPMENT, CULTIVATION 



AND USES 



Part II is devoted to a discussion of the development, culti- 

 vation, and uses of the important vegetable crops grown in the 

 United States either by market gardeners, truck farmers, or ama- 

 teur gardeners. An alphabetical arrangement of the subjects is 

 followed rather than the plan of grouping them by their uses or 

 relationships. For convenience of the reader and the student this 

 method has been followed rather than that of chapter headings for 

 each vegetable. Primary headings, giving the name of the vege- 

 table, are used in the center of the page, and secondary headings, 

 such as are required in the discussion of " cabbage as a truck crop 

 at the South; cabbage as a farm crop at the North," are also 

 treated as center heads but are set in a different style of type. The 

 same general style of sideheadings which has been used in the 

 foregoing chapters will be followed in this division of the work. 



ARTICHOKES 



The globe artichoke. Gardeners of the world are familiar with 

 two distinct plants with the name artichoke. The type shown in 

 figure 34 is known as the globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus. It 

 is an herbaceous perennial, producing a dense whorl of large leaves, 

 whitish-green above and clothed beneath with dense hairs which 

 give them a woolly appearance. A blossom stalk with a large flower 

 bud appears, sometimes the first season, but usually not until the 

 second year. It is this large bud with its fleshy scales and recep- 

 tacle which forms the edible portion of this plant. If the bud is 

 allowed to approach the blossom stage, it becomes tough, coarse, 

 and unfit for use. Young buds only are edible. 



