VEGETABLES— DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 227 



the plants should be started in pots to be planted out 

 when danger of frost is over. Keep the young plants 

 free from weeds, and cultivate like sweet potatoes, except 

 no earthing up is required. The plant likes moisture, and 

 growth is arrested in dry weather. It is found to produce 

 larger roots if not staked, and the plant is allowed to fall 

 upon, and shade, the ground. Watering in dry weather 

 is beneficial. The crop should not be gathered until after 

 the autumn frosts, and roots will be found somewhere be- 

 tween ten and thirty-six inches below the surface. The 

 whole root should be extracted, as the lower part is al- 

 ways the largest and most starchy. This should be re- 

 served for the table, while the upper or slender part should 

 be kept for propagation. It is a difficult matter to take 

 them up without breaking, as they often grow three feet 

 long. If not required for immediate use, the roots may safely 

 remain in the ground until spring, or may be taken up 

 and stored. The deep trenching required in preparing the 

 soil, and the great labor in gathering the crop, will pre- 

 vent its extensive cultivation. 



Use. — The roots, which are oblong and tapering, are the 

 edible part. The maximum size to which they grow is 

 two inches in diameter, the larger end tapering upward 

 to the size of the finger. They are covered with a brown- 

 ish-fawn-colored skin, pierced by numerous rootlets. Un- 

 der this is a cellular tissue of a white opal color, very 

 crispy, filled with starch, and a milky, mucilaginous fluid, 

 with- scarcely any woody fiber. When cooked, it boils or 

 bakes quickly, and becomes dry and mealy, and is gener- 

 ally preferred to the Irish potato, which it resembles 

 in taste. Each plant often produces several tubers, but 

 generally only one, ranging in weight from eight ounces 

 to three pounds. It is more nutritive than the Irish po- 

 tato, which it may possibly rival in esteem wherever labor 

 is cheap and it is desirable to obtain a large amount of 

 food on a little space. 



