ESCULENT- ROOTED PLANTS. — JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 225 



buried 1 inch under the surface near the 

 roots of the plants, in which case the 

 produce was 210 lb. We have had on a 

 poor peaty soil, manured as for potatoes, 

 even much greater returns of crop. * 



Of all the substitutes recommended for 

 the potato, no one is so likely to answer 

 our anticipations as this. It is of as easy 

 culture, equally hardy, affording twice as 

 much nutriment, cooked in the same man- 

 ner, and capable of being cultivated in 

 the same soil. 



Soil and manure. — A light, warm, sandy, 

 loamy soil, or a peaty soil, with a sufficient 

 amount of sand to sharpen it and keep it 

 open, is the best for this crop. In over- 

 rich soils it is apt to grow too much to 

 stem, and in close shaded places it is liable 

 to be drawn up tall and slender ; in either 

 case, with a less weight of tubers than in 

 soils less enriched, and situations better 

 exposed to the light and air. 



Taking the crop, and subsequent preserva- 

 tion. — Taking the crop should be delayed 

 so long as there is growth in the plants ; 

 for as long as vegetation goes on, the 

 tubers will be increasing in size. Where 

 the ground is not required, the stem may 

 be cut over a foot from the ground, and 

 the tubers left in the ground till wanted, 

 as they are apt to turn blackish in cook- 

 ing when exposed to the light. If the 

 ground is required, the tu- 

 bers may be dug up and 

 stored by as recommended 

 for potatoes, separating the 

 smaller from the larger, and 

 replanting the former in 

 ground cleared of some of 

 the brassicaceous or legu- 

 minous crops, but not in 

 ground which has borne a 

 crop of tuberous - rooted 

 plants. Great care should 

 be taken, in lifting the crop, 

 that every tuber may be ex- 

 tracted; and the roots should 

 also be cleared off the ground, 

 as every tuber, however small, 

 will grow, and prove trouble- 

 some to the succeeding crop. 

 The best way to lift them is 

 to introduce a three-pronged 

 fork, fig. 95, so deep in the 

 ground as to reach below the tubers ; to 

 lift the mass as entire as possible • and to 

 place it on the surface, when the tubers 



Fig. 95. 



T 



THREE-PRONGED 

 FORK. 



may readily be picked out. A few for 

 immediate use may be buried in sand in 

 the root-cellar, for it is a slovenly and 

 time-wasting process to have to go to the 

 plantation for a few roots as they may be 

 required ; and as the taking of them, in 

 this way, is generally done in haste, there 

 is a greater risk of leaving some of them 

 behind. 



List of approved sorts. — Generally it is consi- 

 dered that there is only one variety ; this opi- 

 nion, however, is incorrect, and arises out of the 

 neglected state this excellent tuber is allowed to 

 remain in. If the crop be carefully examined, 

 as it should be, it will be found that there are 

 some varieties better than others, both in size 

 and form of tuber, and height of stem. Those, 

 therefore, which show evidence of improvement 

 in these respects should be saved for planting; 

 and, in the absence of varieties being originated 

 from seed, this is the only means at present in 

 our power of improving their quality. 



In an excellent work recently published by 

 Messrs P. Lawson & Son, the eminent nursery- 

 men in Edinburgh, entitled " Synopsis of the 

 Vegetable Productions of Scotland," we find two 

 varieties described — the " Common Jerusalem 

 Artichoke," and the " Yellow Jerusalem Arti- 

 choke" — of which latter it is said, " The tubers 

 of this variety are of a yellowish colour, and 

 generally smaller and more irregularly shaped 

 than the common sort; they are also said to be 

 superior in quality, and of a more agreeable 

 taste when cooked." 



Rhizobius Helianthemi (the Jerusalem arti- 

 -Few cultivators, we sus- 

 pect, have any idea that 

 this proverbially hardy 

 plant is no more exempt 

 than almost all others 

 from the attacks of aphi- 

 des. Such, however, is 

 the case ; and, stranger 

 still, instead of feeding 

 upon the foliage, as most 

 other aphides do, this 

 one feeds upon the tu- 

 bers, and forms one of a 

 section of this tribe whose 

 habitations are subter- 

 ranean. The species, 

 however, to which we 

 now refer, confines its 

 operations entirely to the 

 surface of the roots of this plant, thrusting its 

 long proboscis into the tuber, and thereby de- 

 riving sustenance. The writer of the article 

 Entomology in the "Gardeners' Chronicle " (1 848, 

 p. 399), thus lucidly describes it : " We have 

 found these insects, in the middle of winter, on 

 digging up the tubers of this plant, generally 

 secreting themselves in the crevices formed by 

 the juxtaposition of two or more of the tubers. 

 Here they are to be found in small societies, con- 

 sisting of one or two large individuals (females), 

 and a few small and more slender ones (young). 

 Of course, were they to occur in great numbers, 



choke aphis, fig. 

 Fig. 96. 



JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE 

 APHIS. 



