396 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The flesh is snow-white, not sweet, delicately farinaceous, being 

 midway in flavor between the finest Mercer potato and Arrow- 

 root. It can be eaten raw, boiled, or roasted, and requires in 

 boiling about half the time of the common potato. In France 

 excellent bread has been made by adding forty per cent of it to 

 wheat flour. 



The root is of a pale russett color, oblong, regularly rounded, 

 and club shaped, and it differs from other perpendicular roots in 

 being largest at the lower end. The culture is the most simple. 

 The plants produce small tubers in great abundance; these or 

 small pieces (eyes) of the root may be plarfted as soon as the frost 

 is out in the spring, in drills one foot apart, and kept free from 

 weeds during the summer. The crop should not be dug or 

 plowed out until the last of autumn, as the roots which have 

 penetrated deep into the earth during the summer make their 

 great increase in size during the cooler autumnal months. When 

 the crop is taken from the ground the roots should be spread 

 and allowed to dry for a few days preparatory to storing them for 

 the winter, either by burying them or placing in cellars. 



The haulm is so nutricious, that cattle and horses eat it with 

 avidity. On small weak tubers the top growth is but moderate, 

 but when strong pieces of root are planted the shoots run twelve 

 to eighteen feet, and are strong and vigorous. The Chinese cut 

 off the small neck of the root to be reserved for planting, making 

 use only of the large part for ordinary consumption. 



Heretofore we have been compelled to plant only the weak and 

 imperfect imported tubers, which were all that could be pur- 

 chased, and some persons failed of success the past year from 

 this cause or from obtaining only spurious tubers. Fair tubers or 

 eyes, such as we now possess, of American growth, if planted 

 early, will produce roots the first year weighing from eight ta 

 twenty ounces; and pieces of the root measuring one and a half 

 inches in length, have produced the past season one, two, or three 

 roots from each, weighing in the aggregate from twenty to thirty 

 tft'o ounces, and in some instances thirty inches in length, but 

 usually eighteen to twenty-five inches. 



Twelve entire roots of only moderate size that were left in the 

 ground until the second season formed shoots fifteen to eighteen 

 feet long, and produced 3,600 tubers, in addition to a mass of 

 roots weighing eighteen pounds. The same root does not continue 

 its growth the second and third years as has been supposed, but 

 the old roots decay, each giving birth to a number of very large 

 roots, forming in field culture as the Chinese express it " a maga- 



