436 [ASSEMBLT 



DIOSCOREA BATATAS— (JgMflwe of China). 

 JYew observations relative to it. 

 We live at a time when it is not necessary to struggle for ever 

 against popular prejudice as to a new and useful thing in agricul- 

 ture. If some resistance is experienced in our country popula- 

 tion, yet enlightened men are now numerous enough everywhere 

 to encourage a new and useful plant. 



The great amelioration in our State by the use of the most per- 

 fect types of a race, borrowed from our neighbors and elsewhere^ 

 are incontestible proofs of advance. Culture, drainage, &c., are 

 so many happy reforms in our domestic affairs, and in our com- 

 forts and manners. 



We do not flatter ourselves v/ith making popular at the first 

 onset the Igname of China, but we do hope that its introduction, 

 to general use will not be opposed, as the potato was, for nearl'if 

 two hundred years! Its malady is, we trust, but temporary. Ma- 

 lady might assail this new batatas, but perhaps not, so that we 

 may henceforth not fear a famine. 



Five years ago the first Dioscorea Batatas was brought to us. It 

 has attracted attention now almost everywhere, and the calls for 

 them to plant are numerous from all quarters. 



My mode of cultivating them : — Towards the middle of April^ 

 when I believed that we should have no more frost, I planted some 

 of them in pieces and whole, in good light garden beds, at the 

 Museum of Natural History. I set them about twenty inches 

 apart every way. This w as wrong, they should have been set 

 much nearer together. The future alone will teach us what effect 

 our climate may have upon it. All that I can now say is, that 

 my plants have this year (1854) grown well, their long shoots 

 being very vigorous and covered with thick foliage. They pro- 

 duced many flowers (all of which were male) about the beginning 

 of August. At the end of August the growth of stalks and 

 leaves ceased, and they assumed that yellowish hue which indi- 

 cated, after the middle of September, the approaching maturity 

 of the tubercles. 



