JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.
The American Indians learned — who knows how long ago? — that a certain wild sunflower produces rootstocks like those of the dahlia, and the sweet potato, underground. The interesting thing about these tubers is that, roasted or boiled, they are good to eat. When the white men came they learned from friendly Indians to dig up the nourishing wild roots and cook them as they did potatoes. I do not know when or where the plant came to be called the "Jerusalem artichoke." It is not very close, botanically speaking, to the globe artichoke, and the edible parts of the two plants set them still farther apart than do their composite flowers.
It seems a pity that we Americans take so little pains to get acquainted with vegetables that are not as familiar already as beans. We have no patience to like a new kind with a strange flavor. We compare this artichoke with the potato, and declare it inferior. So it may be, but why compare it with that highly improved species? The French cook will roast or boil these tubers, or make a salad of fine quality, and different from all others. If you persevere, you will come to enjoy the new flavor, and your table has gained a wholesome and distinct vege table.
The Jerusalem artichoke is used to taking care of itself. It thrives on gravelly soil, too dry for other crops, and in shady places. The quality of tubers produced under such conditions is not the best. Good tillage in mellow soil wonder fully improves the quality and quantity of the crop. Quick growth produces sweeter, tenderer tubers. We should judge the vegetable by its best samples. It is more productive, more easily grown and more easily harvested than the potato crop.
Almost any farm has some land on it not good for much but these artichokes. Turn the pigs into the patch and they root out and fatten on the roots. They are excellent green food for other stock in winter. Chickens thrive on them, ground fine and mixed with their grain. The tubers are not harmed by leaving them in the ground all winter.
The new crop is raised by planting cuttings of tubers, each with an eye, just as we do with potatoes, when spring comes again.