So extremely productive are these valuable roots, that betwixt seventy and eighty tons' weight of them are said to have been obtained, in one season, from a single acre of ground. They succeed in almost any soil; and, when once planted, will continue to flourish in the same place, without requiring either much manure, or much attention to the culture. The season in which they are dug up for use is from about the middle of September till November; when they are in greatest perfection. After that they may be preserved in sand, or under cover, for the winter.
The roots are generally eaten plain boiled; but they are sometimes served to table with white fricassee-sauce, and in other ways. Their flavour is so nearly like that of the common artichoke, that it is difficult to distinguish them from each other. We are informed that Jerusalem artichokes are a valuable food for hogs and store pigs; and that if washed, cut, and ground in a mill, similar to an apple-mill, they may also be given to horses.
218. The COMMON or ANNUAL SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus) is a Peruvian plant, with large yellow flowers, that is well known in our gardens.
The uses to which this plant may be applied are such as to render it well deserving of attention in rural economy. Its stalks contain a white, shining, fibrous substance, which might be advantageously employed in the manufacture of paper; and the woody part of them makes excellent fuel. Its ripe seeds, when subjected to pressure, yield a great proportion of sweet and palatable oil. These seeds may also be used for the feeding of poultry. The receptacles of the flowers, it is said, may be boiled and eaten like artichokes.
CLASS XX.—GYNANDRIA.
DIANDRIA.
219. SALEP is the powder of the dried roots of several well-known field-plants of the orchis tribe (Orchis morio, O. mascula, &c.)
As an article of diet, salep is supposed to contain the largest portion of nutriment, in an equal compass, of any known vegetable production: even arrow root ([17]) is, in this respect, inferior to it. The orchises from which it is manufactured flourish in great abundance in meadows and pastures of several parts of England, flowering about the months of May and June. As soon as the flower-stalks begin to decay, the roots should be dug up, and the newly-formed bulbs, which have then attained their perfect state, should be separated. When several roots are collected, they should be washed in water, and have their external skin removed by a small brush, or by dipping them in hot water, and rubbing them with a coarse linen cloth. The next process is to place them on a tin plate, and put them into an oven for about ten minutes, by which time they will have lost the milky whiteness which they before possessed, and will have acquired a transparency like horn. They are then to be spread in a room, where, in a few days, they will become dry and hard.