84 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the earth, it is, I think, imperatively necessary that the subsoil should be 

 light and easily penetrated. I have cultivated them in deep and rich soila, 

 with clay and gravelly subsoils, with but very indifferent success — the 

 tubers being short and irregular in form. The plant seems capable of 

 withstanding almost any degree of drought; some, which I cultivated last 

 season in very dry sandy soil, showed no symptoms of drooping in the 

 hottest and dryest part of the season, although every other vegetable grow- 

 ing in similar soil drooped for want of water, and some entirely perished. 



With regard to the yield, I am not now prepared to give any very exact 

 information ; but, from the result of my experiments thus far, I should have 

 no hesitation in saying that in soil adapted to its cultivation, the yield 

 must exceed twenty thousand pounds to the acre. 



The proper time -of planting depends somewhat upon how they are 

 propagated — whether from tubers which germinate from the bud at the 

 extremity of the neck, or from small pieces of the tubers which germinate 

 from the eyes, like the common potato. The bud will germinate almost 

 immediately after planting, and will break from the ground in from eight 

 to ten days ; while the eye, planted two inches deep, requires for its 

 germination from two to three weeks, according to the temperature. 

 While the tuber, if suffered to remain in the earth, will withstand a very 

 low temperature, the foliage is quite susceptible to the effects of frost, and 

 therefore the planting should not be made until danger fi'om this source is 

 at an end. 



If germination takes plarfe by the first of June, I think it will be suffi- 

 ciently early for the tuber to arrive at perfection, which, in this latitude, 

 will be, I think, about the first of November. 



The coming season I intend to make further and more extensive experi- 

 ments, with a view not only to the soil best adapted to its cultivation, but 

 with reference to the value of this production as a crop. 

 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Milton Awdros. 

 Daniel T. Curtis, Esq., Chairman, &c. 



The following is from the London Gardeners' Chronicle : — 



"The Chinese Yam. — I have grown this successfully for the last three 

 years, and I coincide with the opinion you expressed in a recent number, 

 that the plant may be improved, and its utility extended by cultivation. 

 The first year that I obtained the yam, as the sets were small and weak, I 

 had them planted in a cucumber frame, where they had for a short time the 

 advantage of a little heat ; the result in the autumn was a number of well- 

 developed tubers, the weight of which, in the aggregate, was estimated to 

 be equal to an ordinary crop of early potatoes, grown under similar circum- 

 stances. The second year the sets were started in heat, and planted in the 

 open ground in June, with the ridge cucumbers, on a bed made up in the 

 usual way with lawn sweepings, cabbage stumps, and garden rubbish ; the 

 bottom heat given by this mass of fermenting matter evidently suited the 

 habits of the yam, the plant grew luxuriantly, and produced some remark- 



