422 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Dec., 1898. 
It is a very useful plant on the farm,* too, and we might have something to 
. Say about it some day. The Globe Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) is, properly 
speaking, a thistle, a domesticated thistle so improved by cultivation that the 
thick and circular bottoms of the flowers—les fonds d’artichauts, as the 
French call them—can be used in various ways as a most wholesome esculent. 
There is a considerable consumption of it in the southern countries of Europe, 
it being on the table, in one form or another, nearly every day of the vear. 
For that purpose the heads, as the flowers are called, are cut off from the 
plants, and stripped of their fluffy cotton. They are then either used in the 
soup or boiled in salt water, and served as salads with olive oil and vinegar, or 
simply fried in butter. They make excellent pickles, and can be dried in the 
sun or in the evaporator for winter use. The rib-like sepals of the flower are 
also used, mostly boiled in salt water. You take them off then one by one, dip 
the lower end in a sort of sauce made of olive oil, vinegar, pepper, and 
mustard, and then . . . suckit. It isan excellent appetiser, and is greatly 
relished by connoisseurs, who not seldom pay high prices for them. 
In Queensland the Globe Artichoke could easily be grown over the whole 
colony. It is mostly propagated by suckers, which grow in large numbers all 
round the stem. Those suckers are pulled off—not cut—usually coming off 
with a piece of the oid stem (talon), which ensures a strike. 
The most suitable land would be a rich and friable loam, or land made 
similar to such by cultivation and tillage. It should be either forked or sub- 
soiled from 12 to 18 inches deep, and well mixed with horse or other manure. 
Good drainage is a necessity, be it natural or secured by artificial means. 
The suckers should be planted in the spring directly after having been 
pulled off the old plant, in rows 4 feet apart each way. ‘Uhis allows the 
cultivator to pass in every direction, and saves labour. Keeping the weeds 
down and the soil well pulverised, never allowing it to form a crust, is about 
the only care the artichoke requires until harvest time, except, perhaps, one or 
two thorough soakings should the weather appear to be very dry at flowering 
time. As the heads get well formed, keep cutting them off regularly, and 
others will follow in succession during the whole season. In autumn take off 
more of the suckers, fork some manure into the land again, and then you are 
ready for another good crop the following season. 
People living in remote places might have to grow artichokes from seeds 
to make a start. This is easy enough. Any reliable firm of seedsmen will 
furnish good seeds, which should be sown in beds of light soil from, say, July 
to September. Should the weather be hot and dry, it is well to put on the 
bed a light dressing of horse manure, to give a good sprinkling with tepid 
water, and shade the bed with branches, thatch, or a piece of calico. They 
can remain there till the following season, when they are transplanted in their 
proper places in the garden in the manner described above for the suckers. 
If the operation has been carefully done, they will bear fruit (or rather 
flowers) the same season. 
HEMP. 
Wir a soil and climate which, in many parts of Australia, are eminently 
suited to hemp cultivation, it seems strange that little or no attentionis paid 
to it as a staple farm product. The Victorian Government gives a bonus of 
£5 per ton on hemp and flax manufactured in the colony. Up to April, 1898, 
only about £315 had heen granted, showing that some 63 tons was all that had 
been produced, mainly in the Gippsland district. In South Australia hemp 
and flax have been cultivated with success in the southern parts of the colony. 
In New Zealand little attention is paid to any but the native flax. In Western 
Australia nothing is done to produce this valuable fibre. In its raw state hemp 
is worth about £48 per ton in the Melbourne market. 
* We should not recommend anyone to grow the Jerusalem Artichoke on any valued land on 
‘the farm. See Journal, Vol. 11., p. 351, Ist May.—Ed. Q.4./. 
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