5 



■planted at the first openinj^ of spring at a depth of about 3 to 4 inches, 

 but, during the present scarcity of this root, the course has been adopted 

 of planting the sets closely in an ordinary hot-bed frame to start their 

 growth, and afterward planting them in rows in the garden or fiehl. The 

 same culture as pursued everywhere with the Common Potato will serve 

 successfully for the Chinese one. 



The propagation of tubers for the extension of stock is also very 

 simple. Like the Sweet Potato, the Dioscorea is a trailing vine. In six 

 weeks from the time of planting the tubers or pieces of root, they will have 

 formed shoots 5 to 6 feet in length. These shoots may be buried for two- 

 thirds their length in slight furrows, one inch deep, allowing the leaves 

 alone to be out of the earth, and the extremity of the shoots entirely so. 

 Another mode is to take off two-thirds of each shoot and cut it into 

 sections, each having a leaf with a small portion of the stem, (D. plate) 

 and planting these in a bed, covering all but the leaf. In either case they 

 will make roots after the first rain, or if watered, and in twenty or thirty 

 lays they will form a bulb or tuber at the joint near each leaf or at 

 ts axil. These must be carefully preserved when taken up in the fall, 

 md will serve for spring planting the ensuing season; the tubers being as 

 -aluable and productive as sections of the roots. Tubers the size of a 

 arge pea, planted in the Spring, form beautiful regular roots fifteen to 

 wenty inches long by Autumn, as has been fully proven here the past 

 I eason, in confirmation of the European statement. 



In France they state the increase from a tuber or piece of root, as being 

 several hundreds; and we should with our experience consider a hundred 

 < s a moderate produce in tubers, in addition to the large root, which 

 I lay be cut into 30 to 50 sections or eyes for replanting. 

 , For any further information we refer to the U. S. " Patent Office 

 iUeport," to the "Revue Horticole" and "Bon Jardinier" of France, and 

 :t ) the "Mark Lane Express," and "Gardener's Chronicle," of England, or 

 ,t ) Extracts from these works published in the November and December 

 .lumbers of the "Horticulturist," and other leading American eTournals. 

 " ee page 8. 



EXPLAAATION OF PLATE. 



^.-General representation of the root formed from a tuber in one 

 ason one-fourth the natural size linearly, or one-sixteenth the size 

 perficially. 



B. — Section of root. 



C— Seed tuber formed by covering the vine. 

 />.— Seed tubers formed from a section of the shoot. 



