his profits at L23 per hectare
(L9 3s. 4d. per acre). The soil was very inferior. Donoil terms it
third-rate, and it does not appear to have been manured even once
during the fifteen years it was under Jerusalem artichoke. I fear our
artificial manure manufacturers will hardly look with a favorable eye
on the advent of a crop into our agriculture which can get on so well
without the intervention of any fertilising agents. Indeed, several of
the French writers state that little or no manure is necessary for this
plant. But this can hardly be the case; for it is evident that a crop
which, according to Way and Ogston, removes 35 lbs. of mineral matter
per ton from the soil, or three times as much potash as turnips do, must
certainly be greatly benefited by the application of manure. And I have
no doubt but that the Jerusalem artichoke, if well manured and grown
in moderately fertile soil, would produce a much heavier crop than our
Continental neighbors appear to get from it.

4th. The Jerusalem artichoke may be cultivated with advantage in places
where ordinary root-crops either fail or thrive badly. In such cases
the ground should be permanently devoted to this crop. Kade gives an
instance where a piece of indifferent ground had for thirty-three years
produced heavy crops of this plant, although during that time neither
manure nor labor had been applied to it. In Ireland the potato has been
grown under similar circumstances.

The nutritive constituents of tubers of the Jerusalem artichoke bear
a close resemblance in every respect, save one, to those of the
potato. Both contain about 75 per cent. of water, about 2 per cent.
of flesh-forming substances, and 20 per cent. of non-nitrogenous, or
fat-forming and heat-giving elements. In one respect there is a great
difference--namely, that sugar makes up from 8 to 12 per cent. of the
Jerusalem artichoke, whilst there is but a small proportion of that
substance in the potato.

The large quantity of sugar contained in this root is no doubt the cause
of its remarkable keeping properties in winter, and it also readily
accounts for the avidity with which most of the domesticated animals
eat it.

On the whole, then, I think that the facts I have brought forward
relative to the advantages which the Jerusalem artichoke presents as a
farm crop, justify the recommendation that it should get a fair trial
from the British farmer, who is now so much interested in the production
of sui