As may be seen by turning to the first cited page of said report, I set forth there, "some striking advantages in the culture of the common kind of artichoke," and stated I was about to try the culture of the Tennessee kind, new in this region, and said to be of extraordinary product. I did so, with these also some others for seed, that came from the State of Georgia, which I learned were also the Jerusalem; and I found the two last named identical, or of like qualities, and of wonderful yield. By reading the cited extract in said report, and being reminded I had promised to communicate to the farming public the result of my experiment with this kind of artichoke, and for the sake of method, I choose to write under the divisions named. But ere pursuing them directly, I will describe the Jerusalem, and my manner of their culture, and gathering. The tubers of this sort are long and smooth, and thus unlike the common, which are oval and rough; though the former are not so large as the latter. The Jerusalem are not remarkable for size, (looking like small sweet potatoes,) but for multitudes, as the product is so good as to fill the ground in every direction where planted. My rates of product per acre on different lots, as nigh as I could ascertain by detached places dug, were from eight to twelve hundred bushels per acre. I planted rows of the common and Jerusalem, side by side, to test the comparative yield, dug twenty feet in a row of each kind. The product was, six quarts of the common, and a bushel and a half and six quarts of the Jerusalem; indicating that in drills three feet apart and stocks a foot in the drill, the product of the common would be short of 150 bushels per acre, and the Jerusalem upwards of 1,200 bushels. The former, at a critical time of growth, were injured by a dry spell, causing some of their leaves to fade; but all the leaves of the latter continued green through the season. I consider the most eligible distance to plant the Jerusalem is about 4 feet drills, and small pieces of the tubers put twelve inches or more in the drills, and the ground to be kept clean and loose till the plants shade it well, which they soon do. Less work is necessary for artichokes than corn. My practice of gathering the Jerusalem artichoke is to plow flush the ground, and small hands to follow the plow to pick up all the tubers made visible, while the balance left, (one half perhaps) was left to be rooted for by swine. But designing brevity, I must at once proceed to the heads before named. And 1st. In favor of the substitution of the said artichoke for the Irish potatoe, it may be asserted that the latter grows well wherever the former does. And it may be, ere long, that Ireland itself will substitute, as sustenance for its millions, the Jerusalem artichoke for its no longer reliable potato. The prodigious and certain yield will compensate sufficiently for the comparatively less mealy and nutritious quality than the potato. And improved modes of cooking may soon obviate these comparative defects of the artichoke. I see it stated in a letter published in the Albany Cultivator, written by the distinguished agricultural tourist, Solon Robinson, that he much relished a dish of sauce made of the Jerusalem artichokes cooked as turneps or Irish potatoes, or boiled (often with meat) and mashed up, as common in Tennessee and other Western States. A century ago, or so, the afterwards called Irish potato was cultivated as a curiosity only in gardens, and not deemed a good eatable vegetable. But in time it became the principal food of millions of the human race. And I add, with sadness, that more subsequently its dire disease has disappointed millions of their daily food. But: 2dly. The Jerusalem artichoke is the most profitable of crops for feeding swine. I venture to assert that on soils where fifty bushels of corn can be made per acre, 1,000 of these artichokes can, which will go fourfold, at least, further than said corn towards fattening or store feeding swine. And I learn that, from repeated experiments ascertained, one-fifth of the corn usual for fattening hogs suffices with the help of said artichokes, and how little comparative trouble with either fattening or store feeding hogs when turned into a lot of artichokes to root for them at leisure, or perhaps all winter as well as spring and fall in southern climes. But: 3dly. Said artichoke is a great renovator of the soil where cultivated. The growth of the tops is so luxuriant (12 to 15 feet high and very branching) that incorporated into the earth, its litter cannot but enrich the soil more than the culture of the plants exhausts. And suppose its tops soiled, or cut off measurably in the season of growth, (and thus excellent summer food for milch cows, without injuring the yield of the plant, as I have tried,) or cut before hard frosts for cattles' winter food, and still their eventual benefit for manure is realized. Various are the ways of using the tops to improve land, but the most direct improvement, I consider, is to press them down into the deep drill or furrows, into which you have previously planted a new lot of pieces of the tubers, all then well covered with the plow. The litter of any plant is found to be the best manure for that plant. But to conclude, these hastily written, and therefore somewhat desultory remarks, on the excellent vegetable in question, are most respectfully submitted. INDEX. Addresses, A. Chandler's,.. American Institute, March 1, 1828, 310 264 M. Dickerson's, Geo. Folsom's,. 276 302 Henry Meigs', H. C. Westervelt's, Agriculture in Georgia and South Carolina,.. Analysis of Bean Meal, Maize, Flour, &c., Mode of packing for shipment, 296, 308 284 471 505 498 139 409 Chandler's closing address at the 19th Fair,... Cheese, imitation English,.... Coal, analysis of, 103 412 454 137 470, 506 541 310 138 498 324 494 Communications from contributors, Composition and character of ashes, Contrast between American and European systems of vineyards, 537 Convention of Farmers, Gardeners and Silk Culturists, .... 210 Correspondence of the American Institute, extracts from,.... 468 470, 508 133, 134, 404 Grapes and manufacture of domestic wine, 145, 324 the Garbanzo or Chick Pea, 479 "Woad Plant, by Wm. Partridge,......... 402 482 71 148 204 276 .. 468, 497 144, 262, 472, 531 East Brooklyn Ox,.... 128 Electricity to Vegetation, Extract from the correspondence of the Institute, Disease of the Potatoe, Domestic Wines,.... 66 petition to the New-York Legislature,........ 249, 273 Farming by Gouverneur Morris,. |