32 
ARTICHOKE. 
containing too large a proportion of sand, is liable to becv*me 
violently hot in summer, for this is extremely injurious to 
these plants. After the plants are up, they should be kept 
free from weeds, and the earth often loosened around them 
The business of transplanting may be done in cloudy or 
wet weather, at any time after the plants are from nine to 
twelve inches high. Having fixed upon a proper soil and 
situation, lay on it a good quantity of rotten dung, and trench 
the ground one good spade or eighteen inches deep, incor- 
porating the manure therewith ; this being done, take up 
the plants, and after shortening their tap roots a little, and 
dressing their leaves, plant them with a dibble, in rows five 
feet asunder, and two feet from plant to plant, leaving part 
of their green tops above ground, and the hearts of the plants 
free from any earth over them, and give each plant a little 
water to settle the roots. 
The winter dressing of Artichokes is an important opera- 
tion; on it depends much of their future success. This 
should not be given them as long as the season continues 
mild, that they may have all possible advantage of growth, 
and be gradually inured to the increasing cold weather ; but 
it should not be deferred too late, les£ by the sudden setting 
in of hard frost, to which we are subject in the Northern 
States, the work be neglected, and the plants consequently 
exposed to devastation and loss. 
In the first place, cut all the large leaves close to the 
ground, leaving the small ones which rise from the hearts 
of the plants ; after this, line and mark out a trench in the 
middle, between each row, from fourteen to sixteen inches 
wide, presuming that the rows are five feet apart, as directed. 
Then dig the surface of the beds lightly from trench to 
trench, burying the weeds, and as you proceed, gather the 
earth around the crowns of the plants to the height of about 
six inches, placing it in gently between the young rising leaves, 
without burying them entirely under it ; this done dig the 
trenches one spade deep, and distribute the earth >qually 
