THE JAPANESE ARTICHOKE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2008, 18 August 1892, Page 8

THE JAPANESE ARTICHOKE.

The "London Gossip" correspondent of the Daily Post says : ' ' And are you sure the news is true ?" And can it really bo that the potato — the old, the reverenced, literally the lord of the soil of Great Britain and Ireland, wherever this ruler of our appetites takes root ; the tyrant of our cooks and their saucepans ; nay, even extending dominion into ourboudMrs, where it is said by foreigners to hold dominion over the very complexion of our race — is about to follow the doom of all that is, and to be

superseded by a better, and more substantial, and palatable, and, above all, more sightly, in the Japanese artichoke ? This vegetable, of which all travellers speak with such pleasant remembrance, has been used ever since its first discovery in 1887, when the learned agriculturist Pailleux brought it from China, and well knowing the tedious measures adopted by the Society of Agriculture for the promulgation of any new ideas, took upon himself the solo responsibility and expense of introducing to Europe a new resource of comfort and prosperity, and planted a few acres with the Japanese artichoke, from which he gathered 3000 kilogrammes of the vegetable, the yield having been 400 per cent. But it is only within the past year that the merits of the plant have been publicly acknowledged, and all praise is due to the great Brebant, the king of restaurateurs, who had been working with undaunted perseverance for five long years in favour of its adoption, that ib is at last accepted by the market gardeners of the environs of Paris, and has just now found its way to this country. It will doubtless be welcomed with eagerness as being cheaper, more abundant of growth, giving less trouble in cultivation, and easier to cook and prepare than our old but no longer valued friend the potato. The Japanese artichoke flourishes best in winter, when all other vegetables are unattainable in price, and even in the last severe frosts was as free of growth as ever. The doctors are in raptures at beholding the potato disappearing from our diet. Many of theni have of late years forbidden its consumption to their patients, and have declared their conviction that the debility of constitution and stunted growth of the London working class is owing to the exclusive use of the potato. When confronted with the argument of the strapping population of Ireland they assert that the moisture of the soil of the Green Isle draws the moisture of the vegetable to itself, whereas in the English potato it is compressed, and, fermenting, causes flatulence and dyspepsia. These learned arguments caused some merriment at the time of tho discussion, and Cobbctt's reasoning was broughb forward in support of the entire rejection of what he called " the curse of Ireland," as tea had become the malediction of England. " Let every potato iield-be ploughed up and the produce given to the hogs, and let wheat replace the evil, both moral and physical, broughb upon Europe by the culture of the potato." But even he who would have planted every spare acre of the soil with wheat for bread, and grass for milk and cheese, would be satisfied with the release of the husbandman from the digging, and the cook from the labour of cleaning and paring of the potato by the substitution of the new vegetable, which requires no toil or care from either one or tha other. It needs no cultivation, but spreads itself benevolently to any extent. It needs no peeling for the pot, merely requiring a slight immersion in fresh water. Many are the indications already afloat among the chefs of the London restaurants for the most appetising methods of cooking the Japanese artichoke. The announcement of this new clement of confidence and comfort, regarded as a resource for both rich and poor, brings with it the wonder that during tho last century, while human ingenuity has been taxed in the invention of innumerable means of destruction of the human race, few indeed have been the endeavours to ameliorate the conditions of human life. It is only very lately that the cultivation of nutritious vegetables, has been known in England. Our poorer classes are beginning slowly to shake off their ancient servitude to the native cabbage and potato, and are now ready for reception of the new " Heavenly Dew," as the Japanese artichoke is called in China. Who will uudertake, like Pailleux, its first introduction on a large scale into this country ? Who will bestow it at ouce upon the multitude, so that all may eat and be satisfied ? Needless to say that whoever will lead the way to the general adoption of the vegetable, and bravely take the advice of Cobbett, the rural sage, will not only secure the blessing of tho people but a goodly fortune i besides.