VEGETABLES. 427 



can doubt that the introduction of a variety of sugar cane 

 adapted to our soil and climate, would prove a greater boon 

 than even our great grain staple, Indian corn, has proved to 

 the farmers of New England ? Now to whom shall we look for 

 the requisite funds and the extended research, necessary to 

 place in the hands of intelligent agriculturists the means of 

 thoroughly determining this important point, but to our efficient 

 patent office ? It Ts a pleasant thought that our tariff sugar 

 and molasses, designed for the benefit of the inhabitants of a 

 small section of the country, may, through an overriding Prov- 

 idence, cherish in its infancy the growth and manufacture of 

 the same throughout the Union, and thus bless the whole 

 country. 



The few specimens of Chinese potato on exhibition were of 

 small size, though a friend informs us that they have been raised 

 twenty-eight inches in length during the present season. In the 

 present dubious state of the potato, any proposed substitute 

 must at once draw attention, and we have too much confidence 

 in our staid farming community to believe that they will go into 

 any mania in its culture, until tliorough trials, reported from 

 reliable sources, shall assign to it the place it deserves in our 

 agriculture. Prince, of Long Island, in circulars scattered 

 broadcast over the country, considers it " the greatest vegetable 

 boon ever granted by God to man ! ! " A friend who has raised 

 this vegetable the present season, informs us that it grows like a 

 carrot, with a single root extending deep into the soil. lie con- 

 siders the quality as excellent, and states that it abounds in 

 starch even more than the common potato. If this is so, then 

 Mr. Prince's position, " that it is more nutritious than any other 

 esculent we cultivate," also, "that it is perfectly competent to 

 make good bread, similar to that of wheat," sounds much like 

 an attempt to blow a big trumpet without the necessary wind. 



The report of your vegetable committee, is founded on the 

 eye-test — they report on what they see. The most essential 

 characteristic, the qual'ilij of what is presented for their notice, 

 is, by the present system of examination, ignored ; yet this is 

 what governs all of us in receiving or rejecting the products for 

 table use. No article that receives a premium for its large size 

 and good looks, is therefore approved of as a good article, in 

 the usual sense of that term. 



