enjoy it
amazingly when permitted to pull up the roots from the soil. The green
tops are also given to sheep and cattle, and, it is stated, are readily
eaten by those animals.

The Jerusalem artichoke (_Helianthus Tuberoses_) differs from its half
namesake, the common artichoke, and resembles the potato in being
valuable chiefly for its tubers. It is perennial, and attains on the
Continent a height varying from 7 to 10 feet. In this country its
dimensions are less. The stem is erect, thick, coarse, and covered with
hairs. It is a native of Mexico, and although introduced 200 years ago
into Europe, it can hardly be said to be acclimatised, since it very
seldom flowers, and never develops seed. The plant is therefore
propagated by cuttings from its tubers, each containing one or two eyes;
or if the tubers be very small, which is often the case, a whole one is
planted. The tubers possess great vitality, and remain in the ground
during the most severe frosts, without sustaining the slightest injury.
For this reason it is usual to devote a corner of the garden to the
cultivation of the Jerusalem artichoke; for, no matter how completely
the crop may appear to have been removed from the soil, portions of the
tubers will remain and shoot up into plants during the following season.
This peculiarity of the plant it is likely may prove an obstacle to its
having a place assigned to it in the rotation system.

The question now presents itself--What are the peculiar advantages which
the crop possesses which should commend it to the notice of the British
farmer? I shall try to answer the question.

1st. No green crop (except furze) can be grown in so great a variety of
soils; except marshy or wet lands, there is no soil in which it refuses
to grow.

2nd. It does not suffer from disease, is very little affected by the
ravages of insects, is completely beyond the influence of cold, and may
remain either above or below ground for a long time without undergoing
any injurious changes in composition.

3rd. It gives a good return, when we consider that it requires very
little manure, and but little labor in its management.

At Bechelbronn, the farm of the celebrated Boussingault, the average
yield is nearly eleven tons per acre, but occasionally over fourteen
tons is obtained. Donoil, a farmer of Bailiere, in the department of
Haut-loire, states that he fed sheep exclusively on the tops and tubers
of this plant, and that he estimated