1856.] Chinese Potato. 429 



to supersede every other potato and every similar esculent in all 

 countries of the temperate zone, but that it will attain in all these 

 countries the position it occupies in China, and will consequently 

 usurp a portion of the position which is now occupied here by Indian 

 corn and by wlieat; it being perfectly competent to make good bread 

 similar to that of wheat, and capable of being afforded at an incom- 

 parably cheaper rate. As the roots propagate so easily and rapidly, it 

 will, after a few years, become generally disseminated; but, for the 

 first four or five years, millions of dollars will be made by its early 

 cultivators, until all countries are supplied. The stupidity and ignor- 

 ance of those who have maliciously assailed this plant, will be under- 

 stood by the perusal of an address delivered by me before the Amer- 

 ican Institute, which institution awarded its silver medal for this 

 vegetable, and has also in its transactions recommended its culture as 

 a substitute for the common potato. The Secretary, the Hon. Henry 

 Meigs, has made a most triumphant report in regard to its successful 

 culture in France. The statements pretending to emanate from the 

 Farmers' Club of the American Institute, the last spring, unfavorable 

 to this plant, were harefaced forgeries, made from malicious motives, — 

 as was fully exposed. At the present time there are nearly one 

 thousand persons in the Union who have the Chinese potato under 

 culture (mostly supplied by myself), and the public can not fail to ob- 

 tain from them satisfactory and conclusive information the ensuing 

 autumn, for their future guidance. Persons who are desirous of ample 

 information as to the last year's successful culture in Europe, can 

 consult the '•JIarJc-Lane Express^'' and ^'■Gardener's Chronicle,'^ of 

 Great Britain, and the '■'■Revue Horticole,'" published under the direc- 

 tion of the French Institute; which latter, in its last quarto for 1855, 

 devotes twenty entire pages to the experiments and culture of this 

 plant, and concludes with the following astounding announcement: 

 *This esculent has now been tested in every department of France, 

 even to its most northern limits, the shore of the Ehine, and it is to 

 be deemed, henceforth, incorporated into the agriculture of France.' 

 I have taken especial pains to inform myself fully, by examining 

 several very extensive Chinese agricultural works which have been 

 translated by order of the French Government, and it is the perusal 

 of these works and their elaborate details as to the extensive culture 

 of this root in China, which have most fully confirmed in my mind 

 the vast importance of thie inestimable esculent. 



WM. R. PEINCE." 



