250 
_ view to future harvests. 
| fruit ought to be gathered, and all the stems cut 
process of their evolution, and very effectively 
promotes its growth. Should the soil and the 
weather be dry at the time of planting, water 
ought to be freely poured around the suckers in 
several successive doses, to fix them in the soil, 
and to prevent stagnation of the vital fluids. As 
the plants grow up, the ground must be kept 
clean and moderately open; and at the approach 
of frosty weather, the soil must be drawn about 
the stems, as in landing up celery, but not brought 
to so sharp a ridge. Though some of the plants 
will not be prolific, any crop as a whole will pro- 
duce an abundant harvest in the autumn of the 
same year in which it is planted; yet the grand 
care of the cultivator ought to be the healthful 
preservation of the plants during winter, and 
their subsequent judicious cultivation with a 
In the first season, the 
close; and as a powerful auxiliary to the effects 
of earthing-up, wreaths of dry litter may be placed 
_ round the stumps of the stems or crowns of the 
roots, and the soil so drawn upon these as to 
cause rains to glide easily into the furrows. 
_the second season, the plants, if properly man- 
aged, will become very abundantly prolific; and 
at the approach of severe frost, they ought to be 
carefully protected with straw, haulm, or ever- 
In 
green boughs, so placed upon the ridges as to 
form a sort of roof over the herbage; yet in rainy 
weather, these coverings ought to be removed. 
The heads or esculent parts of the plants may be 
preserved throughout the winter and early spring 
_ months, by setting the lower ends of the stems 
| in sand, under shelter of an out-house or cool dry 
cellar. 
_ raised, are profusely produced by all healthy old 
_ plants, and ought to be detached, not in the torpid 
_ season, but in the month of March. . “ We suggest, 
_on the ground of the doctrine of radical excre- 
_ tion,” says Mr. Towers, “ that if the plants stand 
| in single rows widely apart, between which a 
_rank of potatoes, beans, or peas, be grown, the 
_ new suckers be planted on the site of such crops, 
The suckers, whence new plants may be 
in order to reap the benefit to be derived from 
the matters ejected into the soil by their excre- 
tory organs, and by the actual deposition of de- 
tached vegetable fibres. Thus artichokes and 
annual crops may be made every two or three 
seasons, to alternate or rotate with each other.” 
Sometimes the tender central leafstalk of the 
artichoke is used in a blanched state like the car- 
doon; and in this case, the plants must be cut 
away by the surface about mid-summer,—they 
will produce leaves about two feet in height to- 
_ ward the middle of September,—they must then 
| be closely bound with a wreath of hay or straw, 
and covered round with soil,—and they will com- 
plete their blanching, and become ready for use, 
in the course of four or six weeks.—The artichoke 
plant dyes a good yellow colour, acts like rennet 
in curdling milk, and operates medicinally as an 
ARTICHOKE. 
in Quar. Journal of Agriculture.—Maue's Garden- 
ers Calendar—The Mag. of Domestic Economy. — 
Loudon’s Eneye. of Plants.—Miller’s Gardener's 
Dictionary.— British Husbandry. 
ARTICHOKE (Jerusatem),—botanically Heli- 
anthus tuberosus. A perennial, tuberous, escu- 
lent-rooted, herbaceous plant, of the composite 
family. It is called artichoke from a resemblance 
in the flavour of its tubers to that of the edible 
heads of the true artichoke; and it bears the ab- 
surd epithet Jerusalem from an ignorant corrup- 
tion of its Italian name girasole. It is a native 
of Brazil, and was introduced to Great Britain 
in 1617. It grows to the height of from 5 to 10 
feet, has three-nerved scabrous leaves, and pro- 
duces a yellow flower in September and October. 
Though the native of a warm country, it is one 
of the hardiest of our cultivated plants; and it is 
easily propagated and very productive, and grows 
on the poorest soils. It was highly esteemed by 
our ancestors for its tubers ; and, though inferior 
in flavour and other qualities to the potato, it 
scarcely deserves the general disrepute into which 
that more esteemed esculent root has thrown it, 
but merits considerable attention, and would well 
repay somewhat extensive cultivation. It grows 
under shade; it can be cultivated in woods and 
half-waste grounds; it is sometimes planted in 
English woods, and left to propagate itself, in 
order to afford shelter to game; and it might very 
advantageously be raised on semi-barren or ex- 
hausted soils as food for stock. It docs not ripen 
its seeds in Great Britain, yet is very facilely pro- 
pagated from its tubers, in precisely the same 
manner as potatoes. Hither entire small tubers 
or eyed sets of large tubers may be planted in 
drills, at wider distances between both rows and 
plants than in the case of potatoes; and if planted 
in spring, they will be ready for use in Septem- 
ber: yet they may be planted also in autumn. 
Most English cultivators cut the stems over in 
July, to prevent them from falling down. In 
Alsace, Jerusalem artichokes are always grown, 
without any rotation, and with manure only every 
second year, upon the same land. At Bechel- 
broun, upon somewhat shallow soil, they produce 
per acre 10 tons of tubers and 114 ewts. of dried 
stems; and in many situations, upon land of 
medium quality, and without any manure, they 
produce per acre about 500 bushels of tubers. 
The leaves and stems are used on the continent 
as both green and dry fodder ; but only the tubers, 
so far as we know, have hitherto been used in 
Scotland. The plant, when growing, is very un- 
sightly, and, when once in full possession of a 
spot of ground, cannot easily be exterminated, 
but is apt to overrun every plant in its vicinity; 
and, for these reasons, it ought not to be intro- 
duced to a garden or to any choice piece of field- 
ground. The tubers are more watery and less 
agreeable than potatoes, and frequently have the 
effect of raising much flatulence ; yet, though not 
aperient and a stomachic.—Paper by Mr. Towers | fattening, they are eagerly eaten by most grani- 
