340 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



always does better than ever after. Illinois land has raised no 

 ■wheat equal to what she produced twenty years ago. Pjsople going 

 West need to be informed that they will see many privations, that 

 from these sickness naturally follows, and it is doubtful whether a 

 mail going from the East to the West did not many times, during 

 the first year, regret that he had come. This must be undei*stood. 

 But after they get settled, the prospect changes, and they cannot 

 be hired to go back. ' 



CHESTESE YAM, OR DIOSCOREA BATATAS. 



A letter from Mr. Tyler was read, stating that he had received 

 tubers of the Chinese yam, presented by Mr. Prince last spring, and 

 had grown some of the long yams, resembling sweet potatoes, and he 

 desires to know how he should preserve these yams during winter. 



Mr. Wm. E. Prince responded by stating that the roots should 

 be preserved dry and free from frost during the winter, in the same 

 manner as the common potato, or they may, if convenient, be pre- 

 served in sand; but the roots are so hardy that they may be left in 

 ground all winter without any injury, even in the most northern por- 

 tions of our country, where the common potato, on account of its 

 southern origin, cannot be grown with any success. l\Ir. Prince 

 stated that he is now preparing an ample exposition of the character 

 and constituents of this root, which will go to prove that it is the 

 most important and valuable esculent which the Creator has placed 

 upon our globe. He declared it to be the most nutritious and 

 excellent, the easiest of culture, and the most productive of all the 

 field vegetables; and that being a native of Northern China, bor- 

 dering on Tartary, it is adapted by nature to the most northern 

 latitudes. It comprises the substantial aliment of fully two-thii'ds 

 of the inhabitants of the vast Chinese Empire, and if deprived of it, 

 more than two hundred millions of people w^ould perish from famine 



Mr. Prince remarked thus: I bid you note well what I now tell 

 3'ou with a prophetic spirit. This esculent is the only appropriate 

 national resource on which our country can rel}'^ when the potato 

 fails us, and it is of immensely greater importance and value. 

 Those who have denounced it have never tested it fairly, and are 

 utterly ignorant of its true chai*acter. 



SALT AS MANURE. 



Mr. H. Merriam, Oswego Falls, N. Y., wants to know how much 

 salt should be put on an acre of wheat, and whether in the fall or 

 spring; also, as to its application on corn. 



