1S57. 



NEW EN'GLAND FARMER. 



75 



FuT the iSew England Farmer. 



MILLIOSTS OF DOLLARS. 



Mr. Editor : — A few weeks since I wrote a 

 short article, which, with my name attached, was 

 published in the Farmer. This was an "adventu- 

 rous flight" for such a man as I ; and the pleasure 

 of seeing my signature at the end of an article in 

 a paper that counts its readers by tens of thou- 

 sands, I thought was glory enough for me, but it 

 was only a part of my harvest of fame. Immedi- 

 ately after its publication, a letter bearing my ad- 

 dress, with the "Esq." most politely added, arrived 

 at our village post office, all the way from New 

 York. Maybe, thought I, as the letter was hurried' 

 ly opened, — I thought it very low, to be sure,— 

 maybe, I'm getting up in the world ! Here, a New 

 York gentleman has been reading the Farmer, and 

 my "piece," too, or he would never have known 

 my name. He must have seen something about it 

 that he liked, for he solicits my correspondence. 

 He don't ask a favor of me, as the king did of Pat, 

 when he spoke to him. But it is myself, so he tells 

 me expressly, that is to be benefited. He proposes 

 to admit me as a partner in a very laudable enter- 

 'ovise in which he is engaged, and by which—lhave 

 his very words — "millions of dollars will be made." 

 Isn't that Princely ? A very small share of that 

 sum ought to satisfy the humble ambition of the 

 twenty-acre farmer that I am. And so at last 

 the way to a fortune is open before me ! He don't 

 keep "dark" on anything, as the advertisements do, 

 that offer to put greenhorns in the way of making 

 fortunes without work, but he gives me full par- 

 ticulars of the ])rocess by which these "many mil- 

 lions of dollars" are to be secured, together with 

 his name in full, — the name of an old man, too, it 

 must be, for he pledges a business reputation of 

 "half a century" for the truth of all he says. The 

 name of my liberal patron and correspondent is 

 William R. Pkinxe. And the "many millions 

 of dollars" will be made by the early cultivators of 

 the "Chinese Potato — Dioscorea Batatas, Imperi- 

 al Rice White Variety "" " 



They may dethrone cotton ; may ])ut wheat, corn, 

 rye and beans out of fashion ; may elevate Y'an- 

 kees to a level with the "Johns" we hear of in Cal- 

 ifornia, who were raised on the Batatas, and do 

 a great many other things, for aught I know. But 

 I do hope ISIr. William R. Prince will not "take 

 the law of me" for simply confessing that I do not 

 believe all this. Admitting it to be the most valu- 

 able production of the earth, there is to my mind 

 something suspicious in the fact that Mr. William 

 R. Prince claims the "combination of every useful 

 property" in this "vegetable boon." 



I should like to know your opinion, Mr. Editor, 

 of this wonderful root. And I should lilve to know, 

 if you do not think it is "laying it on thick" to send 

 to every individual whose name it is possible to 

 procure, such unbounded recommendations of any 

 new plant, as those which I received from Mr. Wil- 

 liam R. Prince, of the Dioscorea Batatas ? And 

 if such extravagant puffing is absolutely necessary 

 in the business of selling trees and plants, then I 

 wish to inquire whether it is not time to abandon 

 the traiRc entirely. Fcr one, I am sick of it. 



Winchester, Dec, 1856. S. Fletcher. 



Remarks. — Instead of fearing a prosecution, our 

 correspondent has undoubted claims on the grati- 

 tude of Mr. Prince, for he has, we think, done 

 something towards gratifying a desire which Mr. 

 P. expresses in a circular we have received from 

 him, that his name shall be identified with the in- 

 troduction of the Dioscorea Batatas. 



Of the virtues of this plant we have no personal 

 knowledge. From such of our exchanges as happen 

 at this mioraent to lie before us we clip a brief extract 

 from three accounts, which are all ^e find, of experi- 

 ments that have been made in the cultivation of this 

 new plant. 



The Editor of the Rural Intelligencer, Augusta, 



"supersede every other potato and every other sim- 

 ilar esculent, but" — I like to use Mr. Vv^illiam R. 

 Prince's own v>-ords — "it will usurp a portion of the 

 position which is now occupied by wheat, corn, Sec. 

 In twenty years," he asserts, not prophesies, "our 

 National Statistics will report the value of the an- 

 nual crop as greater than the cotton crop." His own 

 italics. 



Now, all I have to do to become a partner in 

 this patriotic enterprise, and to get my share of 

 the "many millions of dollars," is just to send Mr. 

 William R. Prince five dollars, and then Mr. Wil- 

 liam R. Prince will send me, by express, — I to pay 

 freight, twenty-five potatoes. On this capital of 

 twenty-five bran nevv potatoes I am to establish a 

 branch of this "many •million-dollar" business, for 

 the especial benefit of myself and of my section 

 of this great country-. 



Now, Mr. Editor, as my five dollars are very 

 scarce, and as my bu np of faith, the phrenologists 

 say, is nothing but a great hollow, I propose to give 

 any of my neighbors ^vho read the Farmer, the "re- 

 fusal" of my chance in this promising operation. 



As Mr. William R. Prince threatens "prosecu- 

 tion and retribution" for "inuendoes" against his 

 potatoes, I wish to declare very carefully that I 

 don't sav or know anv thing against them at all. 



Me., who planted one of these potatoes, last spring. 

 This plant is not only to I thus reports the result of his experiment: 



"We started it early in our hot-bed, which, of 

 course, is rich as manure could make it, and 

 there we let it remain and grow all summer, sole 

 occupant of the premises after the young plants 

 for which the bed was chiefly made were remxoved. 

 It grew to its heart's content. The other day we 

 concluded to dig for our peck of huge yams, when, 

 after following the main root down one whole foot, 

 we came across one Diascorea Batatas— one, just 

 one — and that was about as large as a little potato, 

 too small for the pot. We cooked it, however, 

 and found it not a disagreeable esculent. So much 

 for our first experiment." 



Mr. J. P. Fames, of Mendota, 111., writes as fol- 

 lows for the Prairie Farmer: 



"I prepared the ground by spading and thorough- 

 ly pulverizing to the depth of two feet, and plant- 

 ed them the last of April, covering two inches. 

 They came up about the tenth of June. In the 

 course of the summer the vines made a growth of 

 some two feet. The frost of Sept. 20th entirely 

 killed the vines. I have now just taken the roots 

 from the ground. In length they are from 10 to 

 20 inches. They are the largest at the bottom, 

 and taner rearularlv to the ton. The larp-'^^t diam- 



