1912. 
610 
of the interest, and there is the possibility of the loan 
being called in, since the loans are made from deposits 
that are subject to withdrawal at any time. 
MORTGAGE BANKS.—A considerable number of 
private stock companies patterned after the land mort- 
ARTI CHOKE FIELD IN BEARING. Fig. 184. 
gage associations have been organized and are known 
as mortgage banks. These serve as mediator between 
capitalists and farmers desiring loans, or others de¬ 
siring loans on real estate, since their business is not 
confined to agricultural credit. By government ap¬ 
proval they are authorized to sell bonds which are 
secured by real estate mortgages, just as the public 
associations. Their terms to the individual farmer 
are quite similar to those of the land mortgage asso¬ 
ciations, and where the latter are not available they 
serve a useful purpose. But they lack the cooperative 
feature and are operated for profit for the benefit of 
the stockholders. 
OTHER SOURCES OF REAL CREDIT.—In ad¬ 
dition to the organizations that have already been 
mentioned by which the German farmers are enabled 
to secure loans on real estate, also to be mentioned 
are life insurance companies which make farm loans 
as they do in America, but there is not as much de¬ 
mand for their funds owing to the other opportunities 
that the farmers have for making their loans. There 
are also a number of State banks that have been es¬ 
tablished by State aid, that is, on State funds, for the 
purpose of providing agricultural credit, particularly 
for community or for cooperative society loans rather 
than for private loans. These loans are made for 
such purposes as large and expensive drainage opera¬ 
tions in which a large number of owners are inter¬ 
ested, for the building of roads, improvement of 
water-ways, and the making of such improvements as 
affect a community rather than an individual, and at 
the same time are not exactly a public improvement 
to be paid for by taxing all the property owners. The 
loans to cooperative societies are an important fea¬ 
ture, since the farmers of Germany are very thor¬ 
oughly organized for cooperative purposes in every 
branch of agriculture. The loans made to such so¬ 
cieties arc for all sorts of purposes, and afford an ex¬ 
cellent means of financing such organizations. 
SOURCES OF PERSONAL CREDIT.—All the 
sources of credit thus far mentioned have been for 
credit secured by real estate, and for long time loans 
that are made as a rule for the purpose of buying 
land, improving it, or building new buildings. This 
is not enough, as the farmers need a large amount of 
capital as working capital for carrying on their opera¬ 
tions. Especially is this true where such intensive sys¬ 
tems of farming are followed as here, where large 
sums are spent for commercial fertilizers as well as 
large expenditures per acre for labor. To meet this 
want short time loans are particularly needed that 
will furnish the farmer capital to carry on his busi¬ 
ness until his crops are harvested and sold. To sup¬ 
ply this need the farmers’ cooperative banks are par¬ 
ticularly useful. Large numbers of these banks have 
been established and are operated for the profit of the 
members of the Association instead of for the profit 
of stockholders. The development of such banks has 
been especially rapid during the last 15 or 20 years, 
and particularly in connection with the Landwirts- 
chafts Kammer, a public institution established by the 
governments of the respective provinces, and cor¬ 
responding to our State Department of Agriculture. 
Through these banks short time loans are made to 
farmers on personal security largely. The savings 
banks that have also been mentioned are also an im¬ 
portant factor in supplying this sort of credit. 
NEED OF A BETTER SYSTEM IN AMERICA. 
—The German systems of agricultural credit affords 
the farmers an opportunity to secure loans on as fa- 
THE RURAL- NEW-YORKER 
vorable terms as any other business, which is not 
now nor ever has been the case in America. A busi¬ 
ness cannot be carried on without capital, and espe¬ 
cially as our agriculture becomes more intensive, large 
investments must be made in our farms, both in per¬ 
manent improvements and in working capital. Why 
should not the rate of interest at which capital is 
borrowed for this purpose be as low as it is for any 
other business? Take the young man, for example, 
who is trying to get enough ahead to buy a farm. 
What opportunity has he? The money he saves he 
can deposit in a savings bank and get four per cent 
interest for it, or possibly make a private loan at six 
per cent. When he buys a farm he can borrow money 
to two-thirds of its value, probably at six per cent, 
from some capitalist or by paying a high premium, 
possibly borrow from an insurance company for five 
3'ears’ time at five per cent. It is more important for 
our farmers and for the welfare of our agriculture 
as a whole to study the problems of the business re¬ 
lations of our agriculture, rather than spending all 
of our efforts in trying to increase our production of 
agricultural products. The fact that the American 
Bankers’ Association at their last meeting appointed 
a committee on farm financing shows that the bankers 
of the country are thinking along this line, and are 
ready to cooperate with the farmers. Of the many 
benefits that are offered by the various forms of coop¬ 
eration in agriculture, none offers so great and such 
immediate benefits as may be derived by the farmers 
cooperating to establish a better system of agricultural 
credits for the American farmer. h. c. price. 
Halle a. Saale, Germany. 
THE GLOBE ARTICHOKE. 
A long-neglected vegetable that appears to be at 
last coming to its own in this country is the globe or 
true artichoke, Cynara Scolymus, a giant member of 
the thistle family, native to southern Europe. Ten 
years ago globe artichokes were a novelty even in 
MARKET ARTICHOKES. Fig 185. 
metropolitan markets, but are now offered in increas¬ 
ing quantity in early Spring even in the smaller 
towns. The supply comes mainly from California, 
where the plant is very much at home, but a lesser 
quantity is also sent up from Florida and the warmer 
Gulf States. Artichoke shipments from California 
began in a small way less than eight years ago, but 
the movement now amounts to more than 300 carloads 
a year, most going to New York City with its im¬ 
mense foreign population. The principal source of 
production in California is in the lowlands south of 
San Francisco Bay, though the plant grows vigorously 
enough to be a nuisance almost everywhere in the 
State. 
The part used is the “bud” or unexpanded flower 
head, which may be three or four inches in diameter. 
This is boiled or roasted and served with appro¬ 
priate dressings or sauces. The flower disk and im¬ 
mature florets form the edible portion, the tough base 
and involucral scales being discarded. There is no 
great quantity of edible material in a head, but the 
flavor, which is rich and peculiar—somewhat on the 
salsify or vegetable oyster order—goes a long way, 
and makes a satisfying dish to those who acquire 
the taste. Artichokes are enormously grown in 
France, where the people conscientiously utilize all 
vegetable products, and sell them for 15 to 20 cents 
the dozen. Here the usual price is in the neighbor¬ 
hood of 50 cents the dozen. It is likely to grow less, 
as artichokes are easily grown where the Winter cli¬ 
mate is not too severe. 
The globe artichoke must not be confounded with 
the potato-like Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tu- 
berosus, though both belong to the great natural or¬ 
der of Compositae—the most highly organized of 
plants. The Jerusalem artichoke is really a tuberous- 
rooted sunflower, principally grown for stock feed, 
though the brittle, watery tubers are eaten boiled and 
also often used for pickles. 
Perhaps a score of varieties of true artichoke are 
cultivated in Europe, but the Large Globe is prac¬ 
tically the only one in commerce here. Plants are 
grown from seeds sown very early in Spring and 
also from division of the crowns, which is far pre¬ 
ferable, as it perpetuates the type. Seedlings vary 
greatly, and are often atrociously spiny, rendering 
them very disagreeable to handle. A good artichoke 
should be free from sharp spines, both in leaf and 
bud. Fig. 185 is a fair example of artichoke heads 
ready for market, though a spine or so too many may 
be noticed by looking sharply. Fig. 184 shows an 
artichoke field in full bearing. The heads are only 
edible before beginning to expand. When the florets 
show at all they are worthless. For pickling they are 
taken while only half grown and are quite tender. 
The great flowers expand to 10 inches or more in 
diameter, and are very showy with their wide cushion 
of bright blue florets. An open bloom is shown in 
Fig. 186. These large flowers retain their beauty 
many months when carefully dried in the shade, and 
are greatly liked by bees in the fresh state. An arti¬ 
choke planting will attract as many bees as a buck¬ 
wheat or clover field when in bloom. The wild arti¬ 
chokes of the Pacific coast must make a substantial 
contribution to the honey crop in favorable localities 
where they grow freely. 
The artichoke is an easy plant to grow, but for full 
cropping demands a deep rich soil. It endures the 
Winter in the latitude of New York if ice can be kept 
from the crowns, which should be earthed up in late 
Fall and covered with coarse litter to keep out cold 
rains. In California it grows with great luxuriance 
where supplied with moisture, and has largely escaped 
from cultivation. The greatest enemy out there is 
the pocket gopher, a most pestiferous rodent, some¬ 
what larger than a wharf rat. The gopher burrows 
among the succulent roots, seldom leaving a plant un¬ 
til he has severely crippled it. The only recourse is 
trapping, which is a troublesome and expensive pro¬ 
cess. The gopher is everywhere destructive, but is 
particularly so in Alfalfa fields, fig orchards and arti¬ 
choke beds. What he lived on before these exotic 
plants were introduced is a mystery, as California is 
naturally a barren country. 
The artichoke grows from four to six feet high, 
and with its great blue thistle-like blooms and im¬ 
mense woolly pinnatifid leaves, often three feet long, 
is a strikingly ornamental plant as well as a desirable 
Spring vegetable. Plants bear the second year and 
crop well for a season or two longer, after which they 
begin to fail and should be removed. 
A near relative of the artichoke is the cardoon, 
Cynara cardunculus. It is a smaller spiny plant with 
heads or buds about half as large as cultivated arti¬ 
chokes. The part used is the bleached sprouts or 
new growth in Fall or forced in early Spring. Being 
quite tender as regards frost it is usually grown as 
an annual, the inner foliage and stems being bleached 
by tying up in late Fall like endive or celery, or the 
plants may be wintered over in a pit or cellar and 
the shoots forced in Spring under coverings of earth 
and straw. The blanched stems are cooked like as¬ 
paragus or used in salads, soups and stews. A similar 
use is sometimes made of artichoke stems, which are 
then known as artichoke salad. In frost-free climates 
OPEN ARTICHOKE FLOWER. Fig, 18t5. 
cardoon is likely to become a troublesome weed. It 
was early naturalized in South America, and is now 
the dominating plant on the vast pampas of the in¬ 
terior. Darwin wrote that cardoon had been natural¬ 
ized in South America on the most gigantic scale 
known of any plant whatever. v. 
