The Seed Grower Author:Charles Johnson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SEED-SAVING METHODS, WITH YIELDS PEE ACRE, GROWERS' PRICES, MARKET STATUS. ARTICHOKE. Artichoke proper is hereof treated, the sort cultivated in the ... more »kitchen garden for its flower-heads or buds as well as for portions of the leaf-stalk. It is a perennial of hardy nature, which gives in the first year but few flower-heads or seed, a growth of two years being necessary for the production of a full seed crop. To insure the finest and purest, seeds, the better plan is to plant slips or suckers taken from established plants which have borne flower-heads possessing the characteristics of the variety. These slips should be taken off late in spring, or in extreme southern sections in October, when they are of a height of six inches or so, and transplanted about four inches deep, in rows four feet apart, two feet in the row. Cultivate the crop and keep the soil loose and free from weeds. But when suckers are not to be had, then plants must be obtained from seed, which is sown early in spring, in drills one foot apart, seeds being covered one inch deep. When plants are several inches high, transplant in rows same as directed for slips. These plants in the second year should be gone over carefully, and only those which have given large flower-heads true to variety must be allowed to remain for seed. In the rigorous winters of the Northern States, artichoke requires protection with a covering of straw or stable litter, but in the warmer climates of the Southern and Pacific Coast sections this is not necessary. Seed may be shelled by hand, or thrashed out on a floor, with a flail, running seed through a fan mill for cleaning. Market.—While the more general cultivation of this vegetable in the United States is confined to the South and to the Pacific Coast, it is al...« less