i 



PRINCE'S NURSERIES, 



Flushing, New York, November 1st, 1856. 

 CHINESE POTATO. 



DIOSCOREA BATATAS, IMPERIAL RICE-WHITE VARIETY. 



I have, throughout the past summer and autumn, invited the public to 

 view nay plantation of two-and-a-half-acres of this inestimable esculent, 

 being desirous to identify myself with the introduction of this most im- 

 portant plant ; and after having devoted half a century to horticultural 

 pursuits, I ask no greater boon of my countrymen than to award me this 

 claim, which I have striven to merit more fully by its extensive culture. 

 I shall also be now enabled to supply the many correspondents, whom I 

 was unable to supply in April, without then breaking into the arrangements 

 for my present plantation. 



Having most fully investigated the merits of this esculent, I have a few 

 positions to state iu regard to it, which, being somewhat bold in their char- 

 acter, / wish my countrymen to record for future verification. 1st. I assert 

 that the Dioscorea Batatas of Decaisne is perfectly hardy during our 

 severest winters. 2d. That it is more nutritious thau any other esculent 

 we cultivate. 3d. That its culture is so easy and simple, and it3 product so 

 great, that it can be afforded incomparably cheaper than any other nutri- 

 tious vegetable, it having produced in France at the rate of above 800 

 bushels per acre. 4th. That the combination of every useful property ren- 

 ders it the greatest vegetable boon ever granted by God to man, and that 

 its introduction to our country is even more important than that of Cotton, 

 aud that in twenty years our National statistics will report the value of 

 the annual crop as greater than the Cotton crop. 



Next I assert, that this plant alone has served to solve the enigma as 

 to the alimentary basis of the Chinese empire, and that a statistical inves- 

 tigation will prove, that if that country were deprived of this one vertical 

 root, and received in lieu every other known vegetable, more than one half 

 of its enormous population would perish from famine. Further, I assert, that 

 such are its superior properties — the three mo3t important of which I have 

 above detailed — that it is destined not only to supersede every other Potato 

 and every similar esculent in all countries of the temperate zone, but that 

 it will attain in all these countries the position it occupies in China, and 

 will consequently usurp a portion of the position which is now occupied 

 here by Indian Corn and by Wheat ; it being perfectly competent to make 

 good bread, similar to that of Wheat, and capable of being afforded at an 

 incomparably cheaper rate. As the roots propagate so easily and rapidly, 

 it will, after a few years, become generally disseminated ; but, for the first 

 four or five years, millions of dollars will be made by its early cultivators, 

 until all Countries are supplied. The stupidity and ignorance of those who 

 have maliciously assailed this plant, will be understood by the perusal of 

 an address delivered by me before the American Institute, which Institution 

 awarded its Silver Medal for this vegetable, and has also iu its Transactions 

 recommended its culture as a substitute for the common potato. The Secre- 

 tary, the Hon. Henry Meigs, has made a most triumphant report in regard 

 to its successful culture in France. The statements pretending to emanate 

 from the Farmers' Club of the American Institute, the last Spring, unfavor- 

 able to this plant, were barefaced forgeries, made from malicious motives — 

 as was fully exposed. At the present time there are nearly one thousand 

 persons in the Union who have the Chinese Potato under culture (mostly 

 supplied by myself), and the public cannot fail to obtain from them satis- 

 factory aud conclusive information the present season for their future 

 guidance. Persons who are desirous of ample information as to the last 

 year's successful culture in Europe, can consult the " Mark Lane Express" 

 and " Gardeners' Chronicle," of Great Britain, and the "Revue Horticole," 

 published under the direction of the French Institute; which latter, in its 

 last Quarterly for 1855, devotes twenty entire pages to the experiments 

 and culture of this plant, and concludes with the following astounding an- 

 nouncement: — "This esculent has now been tested in every Department of 

 France, even to its more uorthern limits — the shore of the Rhine, and it is 

 to be deemed henceforth incorporated into the agriculture of Fi ance." I 

 have taken especial pains to inform myself fully, by examining several very 

 extensive Chinese Agricultural works which have been translated by order 

 of the French Government, and it is the perusal of these works aud their 

 elaborate details as to the extensive culture of this root in China which 



