362 



ROOT CROPS. 



Pew persons are probably aware of the quantity of potatoes 

 used in England, America and the Continent, in the manufacture 

 of fetarch, arrowroot, and tapioca, &c., A starch manufactory in 

 Mercer, Maine, United States, grinds from 16,000 to 24,000 

 bushels annually of potatoes, and makes 140,000 to 240,000 lbs. 

 of starch, which finds a ready market at Boston, at four dollars 

 the hundred pounds. The New England manufacturers prefer it 

 to Poland starch. Another starch manufacturer, in Hampden, 

 America, consumes 2,500 bushels per day. In a single district in 

 Bavaria, in Grermany, 400,000 lbs. of sago and starch are manu- 

 factured from potatoes ; 100 lbs. of potatoes are said to yield 

 12 lbs. of starch. Erom experiments made in America, with three 

 varieties of potatoes, the long reds, Philadelphia, and pink-eyes, 

 it was found that the former yielded the most starch, viz., about 

 6 lbs. to the bushel. A bushel of potatoes weighs about 64 lbs. 

 The following table from Accum, gives the rate of starch and com- 

 ponent parts per cent, in diiferent varieties : — 



Sort. 



Fibrine. 



Starch. 



Vegetable 

 Albumen. 



Gum. 



Acids and 

 Salts. 



Water. 





7-0 



15-0 



1-4 



4-1 



5-1 



75-0 



Ditto germinated 



6-8 



12-2 



1-3 



3-7 





73-0 



Potato sprouts ... 



2-8 



0-4 



0-4 



3-3 





93-0 



Kidney potatoes... 



8-8 



9-1 



0-8 







81-3 



Large red ditto ... 



6-0 



12-9 



0-7 







78-0 





8-2 



15-1 



0-8 







74-3 



Potato of Peru ... 



5-2 



15-0 



1-9 



1-9 



76-0 



Ditto of England 



6-8 



12-9 



11 



1 



7 



77-5 





8-4 



18-7 



0-9 



1-7 



70-3 





7-1 



15-4 



1-2 



2-0 



74-3 



Cultivated in the 















environs of Paris 



6-8 



13-3 



0-9 



3-3 



1-4 



73-1 



The first six varieties were analysed by Einhofi*, the next four 

 by Lamped, and the last named by Henry. 



YAMS. 



The different species of yams have a wide range. In the West 

 Indies there are several varieties, having distinctive names, ac- 

 cording to quality, color, &c., as the white yam, the red yam, 

 the negro yam, the Creole yam, the afoo yam, the buck yam 

 (^Dioscorea tripliylla), which is found wild in Java and the East; 

 the Gruinea yam, the Portuguese yam, the water yam, and the 

 Indian yam, &c. The last is considered the most farinaceous and 

 delicate in its texture, resembling in size the potato ; most of 

 the other sorts are coarse, but still very nutritive and useful. 

 The common yam (Dioscorea sativd) is indigenous to the Eastern 

 Islands and AYest Indies. The Gruinea yam (D. aculeata) 

 is a native of the East. The Barbados or winged yam (D. alata ?) 

 has a widely extended range, being commou to India, Java, Brazil. 



