Tumbledown Farm .9 Acres (give or take an acre or two)

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.

The Jerusalem Artichoke is a hardy perennial. In its manner of growth and flowering it much resembles the common sunflower, of which, as its scientific term suggests, it is really a species. Stem six to eight feet high, very rough, and much branched; leaves alternate, large, rough, heart-shaped at the base, pointed at the ends, and indented on the borders; flowers large, yellow, produced on the top of the plant, at the extremities of the branches.

Soil, Propagation, and Culture. --The Artichoke thrives best in light, mellow soil, but will succeed wherever the common potato can be profitably grown. It is propagated by planting the tubers, divided in sections, as is generally practised with the potato. These may be set in spring or autumn, and should be covered about three inches deep. Whether planted in hills or rows, the plants will soon completely occupy the ground.

Extra fine tubers are sometimes raised by stirring the soil to the depth of twelve or fifteen inches before planting, and by a liberal application of manure; afterwards thinning out such plants as make a weakly growth, and weeding and cultivating thoroughly during the season.

Taking the Crop. --The new tubers will be suitable for use in the autumn. In digging, great care should be taken to remove the small as well as the full-grown; for those not taken from the ground will remain fresh and sound during the winter, and send up in the spring new plants, which, in

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turn, will increase so rapidly, as to encumber the ground, and become troublesome. In localities where the crop has once been cultivated, though no plants be allowed to grow for the production of fresh tubers, yet the young shoots will continue to make their appearance from time to time for many years.

Use. --The plant is cultivated for its tubers, which are pickled, like the cucumber, and sometimes eaten in their crude state, sliced as a salad. When cooked they have somewhat the flavor of the true artichoke.

McIntosh says that the tubers may be used in every way as the potato, and are suited to persons in delicate health, when debarred from the use of most other vegetables.

Varieties. --For a long period there was but a single variety cultivated, or even known. Recent experiments in the use of seeds as a means of propagation have developed new kinds, varying greatly in their size, form, and color, possessing little of the watery and insipid character of the heretofore grown Jerusalem Artichoke, and nearly or quite equalling the potato in flavor and excellence.

Common White.

Tubers large, and often irregular in form; skin and flesh white; quality watery, and somewhat insipid. It is unfit for boiling, but is sometimes served baked or roasted. It makes a very crisp and well-flavored pickle.

Purple-skinned.

A French variety, produced from seed. Tubers purplish rose-color; flesh dryer when cooked, and finer flavored, than that of the foregoing.

Red-skinned.

Like the purple-skinned, produced from seed. Skin red. Between this and the last named there are various intermediate sorts, differing in shades of color, as well as in size, form, and quality.

Yellow-skinned. Law.

The tubers of this variety are of a yellowish color, and are generally smaller, and even more irregularly shaped, than those of the Common White. They are, however, superior in quality, and of a more agreeable taste when cooked.