YAM BEAN, 



Paohyrhiztjs tuberosus, Spreng. 



Dr. Maofayden, in his " Flora of Jamaica" page 286, called attention to the value of this plant as 

 follows : — 



" Flowers white. Seeds red. The root is formed of a number of simple cord-like fibres, several feet 

 in length, stretching under the surface of the ground, bearing in their course a succession of tubers. 



" The beans are poisonous ; but the root affords a very plentiful supply of very wholesome food. The 

 produce of three plants is usually sufficient to fill a bushel basket. The tubers may either be boiled plain, 

 in which state they are a very good substitute for yams and other roots in common use ; or they may be 

 submitted to a process similar to arrow-root, and a starch obtained. This starch is of a pure white, and 

 is equal in every respect to aiTow-root. To the taste it is very palatable, is easily digested, and is employ- 

 ed for custards and puddings. Even the trash left after obtaining the starch, and which in the prepara- 

 tion of arrow-root is lost, may, when thoroughly dried, be formed into a palatable and wholesome flour. 



" A very excellent flour may also be obtained by slicing the tubers, drying them in the sun, and then 

 reducing to a powder. 



" This plant is deserving of being more generally cultivated than it has hitherto been. It ought in a 

 great measure to supersede the arrow-root in cultivation. It can be planted at any season of the year, 

 and the roots are fit for diging in the course of four or five months ; the return is infinitely greater than 

 that fi'om arrow-root, and the proportion of starch also is more abundant, so that it can be brought to 

 market at so cheap a rate, as to admit of being employed by the calico-printers in place of potato-starch." 



The " Kew Bulletin" for 1889, page 17, quotes from letters from Dr. Trimen, Director of the 

 Botanic Gardens in Ceylon, pointing out that the pods when young are not poisonous, but may be eaten 

 like French Beans. He wrote : — " They are quite new to Ceylon. . . . The young pods served like 

 French Beans, are an admirable vegetable, tender and sweet. . . . What constitutes their superiority 

 over the ordinary French Beans is the absence of any fibrous string along the sutures of the pod. The 

 large size is also an advantage ; they are often 10 or 12 inches long." 



In Jamaica the seeds are generally sown in March or Apiil. But they can be sown at any time. At 

 Hope Gardens seeds were sown in September. The pods are ready for use as French Beans 7 months after 

 sowing and when pods are quite ripe, 9 months after sowing, the yams are fit to dig. From one seed 

 sown at Hope Gardens 5 yams were dug weighing altogether 14 lbs. They generally vary in size from 

 one foot to 18 inches long, and 4 to 6 inches in diameter. 



MANURES. 



Asserted Retrogradation of Superphosphate of Lime. 



A paper by Mr. L. Lefranc, recently published in the Bulletin cle I' Association aes Chimists de 

 Sucrerie et de Distillerie, gives the results of a number of experiments made in 1889, and lately 

 repeated, from which the writer concludes that superphosphate of lime undergoes rapid retrograda- 

 tion when applied to arable land, the soluble phosphoric acid which it contains, and which constitutes 

 its special value, passing, in eight days at most, into the insoluble state, that is, the superphosphate 

 becomes really phosphate of lime, its commercial value being thus reduced by more than one-third, 

 and he therefore thinks that instead of the superphosphate, cultivators should use the various phos- 

 phates of lime, ground bones, natural phosphates and slag phosphates, which after being properly 

 crushed and sifted, supply at a low price one of the most indispensable elements for vegetable 

 nutrition. — Sugar Cane. 



A Good Plan is to Utilize Waste Bones. 



The three following methods are strongly recommended, in the Agricultural Gazette of JV. S. 

 Wales, as simple and practical : — 



" 1. Put the bones into a manure-pile, especially of horse manure, which is kept well-moistened. 

 They will gradually decay and disappear, enriching the manure to the full extent of their fertilising 

 value. 



" 2. Bury them in the soil near the roots of fruit trees deep enough to escape the plough. If 

 placed at a sufficient depth beyond the reach of the summer heat, an immense number of rootlets will 

 cluster around each bone and gradually consume it entirely. Of course these rootlets must not be 

 disturbed in the course of cultivation. 



" 3. Pack the bones with moist wood ashes mixed with some quick lime ; the whole mass to be 

 kept moist. 



" In a few months the hardest bones will be reduced to a fine mush as valuable as superphosphate. 

 The drawback to this method is that if precautions are not taking by covering the heap with soil, the 

 nitrogen of the gelatine of the bones may be fermented into ammonia and lost in the atmosphere. 

 Above all things, bones should not be burnt, for the most valuable part which furnishes the nitrogen, 

 is thus destroyed, and the bone dust formed from burnt bones would be little more ttiau half as 

 valuable as that made from complete bones. When bones have been boiled, or better still, steamed iu 

 a vat under a pressure of 35 to 40 lbs., they can, when dried, be readily crushed in an ordinary maize- 

 crushing mill, and form a very valuable manure. The soup that is made when the bones are boiled 

 will contain a lot of valuable nitrogenous matter which should be added to the compost heap, and well 

 mixed with dry earth before being applied to the trees and vegetables." 



