Jerusalem Artichokes for Pig Feeding.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 454, 15 March 1890, Page 4

Jerusalem Artichokes for Pig Feeding.

Some time back we published some remarks with reference to the extensive culture of the Jerusalem artichoke in connection with pig feeding. Several American farmers have tried crowing this highly ' nourishing and wholesome root for the sake of their swine. The method usually pursued has been to turn the swine at the proper time into the artichoke crop, and allow them to harvest the roots for themselves. One practical agriculturist, who has grown this crop successfully, writes to a farming paper as follows :

“ Having had some experience with the Jerusalem artichoke I offer the benefit of my experience to your Western farmers Almost any soil in almost any situation that will grow vegetation will yield a fair crop of artichokes, but in every case <he product will be in a quice direct ratio with the fertility of the land. It is easy to overmanure and fertilize land for corn, potatoes or wheat, that is in the one case. The result is smut. In the second great vine growth and small tubers, and in the third overgrowth that insures rust and lodging before maturity. But nob so the artichoke. It seems next to impossible to make the land too rich, and when it is thus made the yield is enormous. As for details, if the same methods of planting and subsequent cultivation are followed as with potatoes, they will be as nearly the right ones as any. “ Artichokes may be planted in the fall, provided the seed is not cut; if in the spring, it is best divided as for potatoes. The harvest should be deferred to the latest safe hour, and, if convenient, delayed till the following spring, because the tubers increase in size so much during the cold months that the spring product will be found to be from 25 to 30 per cent, better over that of the fall. After one big crop of artichokes there aro tubers enough always left in the ground to make a second volunteer growth, but it rarely amounts to anything. One crop seems to exhaust fertility to a measure it is difficult to account for, if wo attribute the result to commonly known or supposed causes.”

Mixing Manures.— There is hardly any doubt but that the quality of the manure can be increased by mixing all together—that is, mixing that from the stable, cowsheds, and the pens, etc. ; but this, of course, increases the work, and especially so if the manure is hauled directly from the stables to the fields whenever there is a sufficient quantity and there is time to do the work. If the plan of cleaning out the various places and piling up and rotting before hauling out is followed, a better opportunity is afforded of mixing all of the different kinds of manure together. When there is land to which the manure can be applied to good advantage, and there is a supply of manure that can be hauled out, and time that can be spared from the other work to haul out and apply, the better plan is to bake direct from the stables Dr sheds to the fields.