AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 505 



crop, specimens of which he exhibited at the Fair at Boston, aver- 

 aged two and a half lbs. to each root. From the multitude of 

 eyes, and from the fact that seed bulbs can be obtained from the 

 joints of all the leaves, and plants from the small necks of the 

 tubes, it will be easy to multiply the plant rapidly, and still leave 

 the bulb of the roots for food. With the view which I entertain 

 of its value for human food, I know of few ways in which I can 

 do more for human comfort than by urging upon the farmer the 

 value of this root. Its remarkable quality, the ease of its culti- 

 vation, its rapid multiplication, its ability to endure our Winters 

 without injury, all commend it to the attention of the agricul- 

 turist. 



Mr. Fuller, gardener, Brooklyn — I have produced a larger crop 

 per acre, of these yams, than of potatoes, upon the same soil. I can 

 grow a root upon every superficial foot, that is 43,560 plants per acre. 

 I do not think it a gross feeder, or requiring as much manure as 

 potatoes. We find that excellent pies can be made of the dios- 

 corea, and it is much hardier than potatoes when left out over 

 winter, and less liable to injury when exposed to the atmosphere. 

 I plant in rows two feet apart. The old tuber does not grow a 

 second year; it only gives up its substance to nurse the new 

 plant. It may be left in the ground to grow a new crop the 

 second year. The vines are very light, and would grow ten or 

 twelve feet long if trained on a pole. 



Th-eshing. — The subject of threshing was now taken up and 

 discussed, whether it was the most economical to thresh by the 

 flail or machines. 



Solon Robinson gave it as his opinion that the use of the flail 

 was not unthrifty, since the straw and chaff could be fed fresh to 

 cattle. Upon the great prairies, it v.'as necessary to use machines, 

 because the grain was out-door, and farmers W'ere in haste to get 

 their grain into market. In a late conversation with George 

 Geddes, a farmer of some note in Onondaga county, he told me 

 that he had tried both methods of threshing, and had fallen back 

 to the old flail. There is another thing in favor of flail-threshing; 

 it enables the farmer to keep a good farm hand over the winter, 

 and give him employment without loss, at least, if without profit. 



