THE 



GARDENS' BULLETIN, 



STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 



Vol. 1. Issued August 1915. No. 9 



SOME NOTES ON PHILIPPINE YAMS, AND 



THE RESULTS OF CULTIVATION OF 



THREE INDIAN RACES IN I9I4.* 



/. Dioscorea alata, Linn. 



By the kindness of Professor C. F. Baker, of the University of the 

 PhiHppines and of the Department of Agriculture, Manila, through 

 Mr. O. W. Barrett, the Botanic Gardens received in January, 1914, 

 upwards of eighty yam-tubers for experimental cultivation. For the 

 most part there was one tuber of each supposed race that the two 

 Institutions had. 



To accomodate the consignment five trenches were prtp;ired two 

 and a half feet deep in the yellow soil of the Botanic Gardens just 

 behind the Director's house, and filled with alternating layers of the 

 soil and manure. 



The tubers from Manila was planted in these trenches at a 

 distance from each other of two feet, in the month of January; and 

 along with them were planted a few yams of local origin. The 

 shoots began to appear above ground in March and continued to do 

 so until May was in. The whole crop was dug in October ; the new 

 tubers were examined and weighed; and notes made upon them. 



In the current year, 1915, experiments are being made on a larger 

 scale, for which purpose the tubers of the whole crop of 1914 were 

 cut up into sets, each of about 2 lbs. weight or 810 grammes, 

 and has been planted. 



* A report on Philippine yams may be foiincl in the Philippine Agriculturist and Forester, 

 III., 1915. pages 205-209. 



C:5 



