Book I. 



CARDOON. 



651 



3921. Propagation. Tliis esculent is propagated by rooted suckers or young shoots, 

 rising in the spring from the roots of the old plants ; these are fit to slip off for plant- 

 ing in March and April, when from five to ten inches high. Opening the ground to the 

 old stool, slip them off clean to the root, leaving the three strongest on each mother- 

 plant to advance for summer production. Tliose slipped off, prepare for planting, by 

 pulling away some of the under and decayed or broken leaves, and by pruning any 

 straggling long tops of the leaves remaining ; also cut off casually hard or ragged parts 

 at the bottom of the root. Then, having an open compartment, with a light rich soil of 

 good depth, well dunged and dug, plant the sets by dibble, in rows four feet asunder, 

 and two feet apart in each row. Give each plant some water : repeat this once or twice, 

 if very dry weather, till they have taken root." 



39£I2. Subsequent culture. " All spring and summer keep them clear from weeds by occasional hoeing 

 between the plants : this, with regular waterings in the dry weather of summer, is all the culture which 

 they require, till the season of production is tei-minated. They will produce some tolerable heads the 

 same year, iu August, and thence till November : next year they will head sooner, in full perfection. By 

 having fresh stools planted every year or two, the old and new plantations together furnish a production 

 of heads from June or July till November. Besides the main head, several smaller lateral heads gene- 

 rally spring from the sides of the stem in succession ; but, in order to encourage the principal head to 

 attain the full size, most of the side suckers should be detached in young growth, when their heads are 

 the size of a large egg, which in that state are also prepared for some tables. As to the continuing main 

 heads, permit them to have full growth till the scales begin to diverge considerably, but gather them 

 before the flowers appear, cutting to each head part of the stalk. "When the entire crop on a stem is 

 taken, cut ofi the stem close to the ground, to give the plant more strength for new shoots." {Aber. 

 cronibu'.) " To encourage the production of large main heads, some detach all the lateral heads in a 

 young state. These are commonly in a fit state for eating raw, having attained about one third of their 

 proper size ; and they are for this purpose frequently sold in Covent Garden market, chiefly to foreigners. 

 Another thing practised with the same view is the shortening the ends of the large leaves." {Neill, in 

 Ed. Euci/c.) 



395-3. 'Xicol mentions, that the strongest crops he ever saw, grew in rather a mossy earth that had been 

 trenched fully a yard in depth, and had been well enriched with dung, and lined ; and that the plants were 

 generally covered before winter with a mixture of stable-litter and sea- weed. This last article, we believe, 

 is one of the very best manures for artichokes. In no place is the plant to be seen in greater perfection than 

 in gardens in the Orkney Islands ; and we know that the luxuriance of the plants in these is to be ascribed 

 to the liberal supply of sea-weed dug into the ground everj' autumn. It was long ago remarked by a hor- 

 ticultural writer, tliat " water drawn from ashes, or improved by any fixed salt, is very good for arti- 

 chokes." {Si/sfe>?!a Agriculturce, 1682.) 



39-24. Winter dressing. Abercrombie says, " First cut down all the large leaves, but without hurting the 

 small central ones, or the new shoots. Then dig the ground between and along each row ; raising it gra- 

 dually from both sides, ridgeways over the roots, and close about the plants. In rigorous frosty weather, 

 cover also in the litter, a foot thick, and close about each plant." 



3925. Sp}-ing dressing. In spring, the litter and earth being removed in March or April, according to the 

 kind of season, the stocks are examined ; and two or three of the strongest or best shoots being selected for 

 growing, the rest are removed by pressure with the thumb, or by a knife, or wooden chisel. Those shoots 

 or suckers are used for new plantations. Dig the whole ground level, loosening it close up to the crown of 

 the roots of every plant. 



3926. Duration of the plants. " Artichoke-plants continue productive for several years ; but, every 

 season, some well rotted dung or fresh sea-weed, should be delved into the ground at the winter dressing. 

 It is certain, however, that after a few years, the' plants begin to degenerate, the heads becoming smaller 

 and less succulent. It is therefore a general rule not to keep an artichoke-plantation beyond four or at most 

 six years. Scarcely any kind of grub or wire-worm ever touches the roots of artichokes : they form, there- 

 fore, an excellent preparative for a crop of onions, shallot, or garlic. In many gardens, a smidl new plant- 

 ation is formed every year ; and in this way the artichoke season, which begins in June, is prolonged til! 

 November ; those from the old stocks continuing till August, when those from the new stocks come in. If 

 the last gathered be cut with the stems at full length, and if these be stuck among moist sand, the heads 

 may be preserved a month longer." 



3927. Culture for producing the chard. "When the artichoke compartment is to be shifted, 

 and the old stocks are at any rate to be destroyed, the plants may be prepared, after mid- 

 summer, when the best crop of heads is over, for yielding chards against winter. '.Uhe 

 leaves are to be cut over within half a foot of the ground j the stems as low as possible. 

 In September or October, when the new shoots or leaves are about two feet high, they are 

 bound close with a wreath of hay or straw, and earth or litter is drawn round the stems of 

 the plants. The blanching is perfected in a month or six weeks. If the chards are 

 wished late in wintei*, the whole plants may be dug up before frost sets in, and laid in 

 sand in their blanched state ; in this way they may be kept for several weeks." 



3928. Seed. The heads when suffered to remain ten days or a fortnight, after the season 

 of cutting, expand the calyx leaves, and display an aggregation of jagged purple florets, 

 producing a fine appearance. Wlien ripe seed is wanted, those heads in flower are to be 

 bent down and retained in that position, so as that the calyx may throw off the autumnal 

 rains. In general, however, the seed is not perfected in our climate. 



SoBSECT. 4. Cardoon, or Chardoon. — Cynara Carduncnlus, 1j. {Tabem. Icon. 696.) 

 Si/ng. Poli/g. JEqu. L. 'and Ci/narocephalce, J. Cardoon, Fr., Ger., and Ital. 



3929. The cardoon is a hardy perennial plant, a native of Candia, introduced to Eng- 

 land in 1658, and ^nown in all the European languages under the same name. It greatly 

 resembles the artichoke, but rises to a greater height ; and becomes a truly gigantic her- 

 l>aceous vegetable of four or five feet in height. It produces flowers like those of the 

 articlioke in August and September. " In France," Neill observes, "the native prickly 

 plant is sometimes cultivated under the nanie of Cardoon of Tours, and is accounted pre- 

 fcr.vblc to the common garden variety. So formidable are its spines, that great care is 



