VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION A.M. CULTURE. 335 



selected for shipment to market. They should be green 

 through iu cross section, and should be of such a size 

 that ninety will just fill a bushel crate; the form must 

 be full and not badly shaped. No cucumber of a yellow 

 tint must be placed in the package if a good "rice is 

 expected. 



The ordinary vegetable crate is used for shipping this 

 vegetable to the market. The cucumbers are laid in close 

 and compact, and the crate filled above the top; then the 

 top is pressed on, so that the vegetable is securely packed, 

 and no movement becomes possible during shipment. 



CHINESE YAM.— (Dioscorea Batatas.) 



A perennial plant brought from China to France in 

 1850 or 1851 by M. de Montigny, the French Consul at 

 Shanghai. It has annual stalks or vines, and perennial 

 tuberous roots. The leaves are heart-shaped, triangular, 

 pointed above, ami seven or eight nerved. The length and 

 breadth of the leaf are about equal; it has a smooth and 

 glossy surface, and is of a deep green color. Its footstalks 

 are half the length of the leaf, furrowed, and of a violet 

 color. Its flowers are dioecious, and of a pale yellow 

 color. The twining stems turn from left to right, and 

 grow, if staked, at least ten or twelve feet high, and 

 develop from the axils of the leaves small tubers, the size 

 of a large pea or kidney bean, which drop from the stem 

 at maturity. 



Culture. — The small, axillary tubers afford the readiest 

 mode of propagating the plant, though the largest pro- 

 duct seems to have been obtained where the root tubers 

 were cut in sections an inch or an inch and a half long. 

 These should be planted in rich ground deeply trenched, 

 the deeper the better, and then laid off in low ridges or 

 beds eighteen or twenty inches from center to center. On 

 the top of this ridge a furrow, three inches deep, is made 



