The artichokes will grow until frost kills the stalks, and a patch of
one-quarter of an acre, when the soil is in good condition, will yield a
yearly average of between two hundred and fifty and three hundred bushels
of them. They can be fed before they are quite ripe, in which case the
cow will eat up the whole plant—root, stalk, and branch. She must not
have access to a heap of the tubers, lest she surfeit and seriously
injure herself. As long as the whole plant is fed, she should not be
allowed more at a time than she will eat up clean, for if she gets more
she will eat the tubers, and refuse the stalks. In fact she will prefer
these tubers at all times to any other food. She should therefore receive
a certain allowance, say a peck or a little more, three times a day, so
that she will eat up the stalks, and also a small portion of other forage
with them. In winter and spring she will consume a bushel or more of the
raw tubers a day, together with eight or ten pounds of hay or other dry
food. Her ration of artichokes should never be so large that she will
reject other food.
Artichokes can be fed for about eight months of the year, say from the
first of October to the first of June, during which time the cow will
consume two hundred and forty bushels, or more, of them. These, with
the hay and other dry fodder, will keep her in excellent condition, and
produce an abundance of good milk without additional food. One ton of
hay or other dry fodder, in connection with the artichokes, will last
during the said eight months, affording the cow eight or nine pounds a
day. Three quarters of a ton may suffice, but she should not have less
than this. If the crop of hay and other dry fodder exceeds a ton, it may
all be fed during the first year, or a part of it may be kept over for
the ensuing year. In stowing away the hay, ten or twelve quarts of salt
should be scattered through a ton of it, to impart a relish. In addition
to this, the cow should receive two or three ounces of salt daily, and
plenty of pure fresh water.