I have now given my instructions for keeping a cow, and it is evident
from what I have written, that the Jerusalem Artichoke is my main
dependence for her support. The other points that I have touched upon,
are of minor importance, when compared with the value that I have
attached to this plant. My own experience with the plant satisfies me
that I have not overstated its merits. On rich land a single stalk will
produce from a peck to half a bushel of the tubers. Last year was an
exceptionably unfavorable one in this locality, on account of drouth in
summer and fall; and yet the artichokes that I planted between the trees
in my peach orchard yielded abundantly. I have fattened cattle on them
without any additional food excepting a little hay, until they were fit
for the butcher; and my horses thrive on them when fed in connection with
hay, doing full work without grain. A brother of mine planted artichokes
in a field that had been in cultivation for more than a century, and yet
in spite of the drouth, of indifferent culture without manure, and of an
early frost that prematurely killed the plants, the yield amounted to
between five hundred and six hundred bushels to the acre.