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THE CHINESE POTATOE.— THE CUSTARD MARROW. 



Like all the rest of curious and enquiring 

 folks, I have grown these two new esculents, 

 and with such satisfactory results, that 1 

 gladly take this opportunity to commend 

 them to readers of the Flok.vl World, as 

 no time should now be lost by those intend- 

 ing to give them a trial. Whether the yam 

 (Dioscorea Battatas) will ever supersede the 

 potatoe is to me very questionable ; but, 

 when well treated, both as to culture and 

 cookery, it is a really valuable addition to our 

 kitchen-garden stock, and it is so thoroughly 

 hardy, that it may be grown anywhere in 

 the three kingdoms. As it is new, large 

 roots are only to be had by paying a good 

 price for them, and as the majority of 

 growers will trust to little sets of the size 

 of hazel nuts, I must caution them not to 



expect a very substantial dish the first year ; 

 in fact, unless large sets are used, it would be 

 vain to hope for any for cooking purposes 

 the first season. By the annexed cut, the 

 reader will observe that the yam grows with 

 its thickest end downwards, and as a matter 

 of cource, it requires a deep well-worked 

 soil, but it need not be rich ; indeed, good 

 loam, without manure, produced me a better 

 crop than a prepared rich compost which I 

 used the first year the yam was made public 

 property. It likes a deep rather sandy 

 loam amazingh-, but a wet clay is quite 

 unfit for it. There are several modes of 

 propagating the plant ; namely by the buds 

 in the axils of the stem, just as you would 

 increase a valuable new kind of potatoe — 

 for let me tell you potatoes are as easily 



propagated from cuttings as dahlias are — 

 by suckers from below, and by whole or 

 divided tubers. It is now so cheap and 

 accessible a thing that there can be no 

 temptation to cut the root into very small 

 sets, for as they lie dormant for some time, 

 small pieces are apt to decay, hence the 

 roots should not be cut up too small, and if 

 large specimens are expected for cooking 

 next autumn, good sized whole sets should 

 be used. Plant any time in April, but the 

 earlier the better; the beginning of May 



is the latest time they can be planted. Let 

 the ground be well dug, and at least two 

 feet deep, and if the soil is naturally shal- 

 low, throw the earth in ridges, and plant on 

 the top seven inches apart. At the end of 

 the season, when the foliage begins to get 

 shabby, they must be taken up by trenching 

 out the rows ; the tuber being thickest at 

 the lower end, they cannot be drawn even 

 when well loosened, without wounding 

 them. The way to cook it is to boil it but 

 a few minutes, according to size ; if boiled 

 as long as a potatoe it is waxy and insipid, 



