ARTICHOKE (FRENCH) 



5 



and June ; and, for the next two 

 months, good heads may be had 

 from a planting of strong suckers 

 made in March; for the end of 

 summer and autumn, from a suc- 

 cessional planting made in May. 

 Another very good plan is to cut 

 back, close to the earth's surface, a 

 few old plants early in spring, and 

 occasionally afterwards. These will 

 produce a thicket of shoots, which 

 should be early thinned by pulling 

 and cutting the weakest, and allow- 

 mg only a portion of the strongest 

 suckers to remain. These will pro- 

 duce, in succession, nice young 

 heads. If the heads be allowed to 

 attain their full growth, or nearly so, 

 they are not so fine in flavour, and 

 have lost most of their tenderness, 

 so that only a part of the base of 

 each scale and the base of the head 

 are fit to eat. The Artichoke will 

 grow luxuriantly in rich moist land 

 in summer, but it will not stand our 

 winter in wet quarters. It will grow 

 on any kind of soil, if well manured, 

 trenched, and pulverised; but no 

 soil suits it better than a good open, 

 sandy, rich loam, trenched and well 

 manured. The plant is in its per- 

 fection at the second and third year 

 after planting. 



Years ago it was the custom in 

 most gardens at the approach of 

 winter to cover the plants entirely, 

 or nearly, with litter, and then to 

 bank them up with earth, in which 

 condition they remained through 

 the winter. The Artichoke is, how- 

 ever, much hardier than was at that 

 time supposed ; and plants not pro- 

 tected seldom suffer injury. All 

 the protection they require in the 

 severest weather is a few dry leaves 

 or a handful of Bracken placed over 

 the crowns of each plant, to be re- 

 moved when the weather changes. 

 Plants are often allowed to remain 

 too long in one spot, and where this 



occurs the heads all come into use 

 at one time. The best remedy for 

 this is to make a small plantation 

 every year, which will come in after 

 the old roots head. 



Artichokes may be often seen 

 starved under trees, where neither 

 light nor sun can reach them. A 

 clear, open piece of good soil, well 

 manured and deeply trenched up 

 into rough ridges, to get well pulver- 

 ised and sweetened by atmospheric 

 influences, free from trees and 

 hedges, is the proper place to 

 plant them — planting the first batch 

 in March, and for succession 

 another in May, afterwards keeping 

 them thoroughly clean and main- 

 taining an open free surface by 

 often hoeing the ground about 

 them. By such means a dozen 

 stools will produce as many fine 

 rich heads as double the quantity 

 will do by the old-fashioned crowd- 

 ing, neglectful system. Make choice 

 in early spring of good strong 

 suckers, take ofl" the stools care- 

 fully with a sharp, strong paddle- 

 trowel or Asparagus knife, with 

 some root or heel of the old stool 

 to them, to hold them in the 

 ground ; plant them singly 2 ft. 

 apart, in rows at least 4 ft. apart, 

 or in groups of three in triangles, 

 at 4 ft. apart, at least, in the row. 

 Protect them as soon as planted, 

 against the sun and cutting winds, 

 with Seakale pots which are out of 

 use, or with evergreen boughs, or 

 some other convenient protecting 

 material. Those thus early planted 

 will produce fine crisp heads the 

 same summer and autumn. If in 

 cutting heads the stems also be cut 

 close to the ground, new suckers 

 will soon appear, and if duly thinned 

 will produce a late crop ; thus, in 

 various ways, by a litde trouble 

 and attention a regular supply of 

 good Artichokes may be had from 



