198 GARDENING FOE THE SOUTH. 



fancy vegetable, raised mostly as a curiosity, and of no 

 great merit as an esculent. In France the Tours Cardoon, 

 a very spiny, thick or fleshy-ribbed variety, is most culti- 

 vated, and, being the least liable to run to seed, is the best 

 sort. The common spineless variety is the only one of 

 which seed is usually offered in America. 



Sow in drills five feet apart when the spring frosts are 

 over, and at intervals until within four months of killing 

 autumn frosts, as the early sown ones may run to seed. 

 Other crops may at first occupy the space between the 

 drills. Plant the seed an inch deep, and thin the plants 

 gradually until they are eighteen inches apart in the drills. 

 Those taken up may be reset to fill vacancies or to enlarge 

 the plantation. The soil must be light, deep, well pulver- 

 ized, and tolerably rich. Keep the ground loose about 

 them, hoeing up all the weeds. When the plants are 

 eighteen inches or two feet high, they must be blanched. 

 The decayed leaves must be removed, and the rest closed 

 together by strings or bass matting. Then bind up the 

 plant carefully with twisted bands of hay or straw, be- 

 ginning at the root. Select a dry day, or the plants will 

 rot. Bind up two-thirds of the height of the stem ; then 

 dig and break the ground and earth up to nearly the same 

 height. As the plants grow, continue to tie and earth up. 

 Watering liberally in hot weather is the only way to keep 

 them from seeding. When the plants are blanched eight- 

 een inches or two feet, they are fit for use. They will 

 blanch fully in about two or three weeks. Do not let the 

 earth get between the leaves or they will decay. 



For Seed. Leave a few full-grown plants unblanched 

 to stand the winter, and they will shoot up to seed the 

 next season. 



Use. The stalks rendered white and tender by blanch- 

 ing are used in stews, soups, and salads, the leaves and 

 steins being white and crisp for two feet in length. The 

 plant is not very nutritious. 



