208 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
useful for raising seedlings, whether in the 
_green-house, the hot-bed or in the window. In 
the method referred to, a layer of good loam is 
put into the box and pressed down level and 
moderately firm. Sphagnum, or common 
packing moss that has been well dried, is 
sifted through a wire sieve that will make it 
about as fine as ordinary sawdust. A half¬ 
inch layer of dried moss of this kind is sifted 
over the soil. Put upon this a three-fourths 
inch layer of soil, and upon this the seeds are 
to be evenly sown. They should be pressed 
down gently by a board, and then enough fine 
moss sifted on to cover them well, finally wa¬ 
tering from a watering-pot with a fine rose. 
We mention this in detail, because we think 
that many who may try Pyretlirum seeds in 
the open ground may fail, while seeds thus 
treated will grow under these conditions if 
at all. All that needs to be done is to keep 
the moss just damp to the touch. When the 
young seedlings are large enough to handle, 
they should be transplanted to good garden 
soil and set about a foot apart. No product 
is to be expected the first year, but the plants 
should be kept free from weeds. Though the 
plants are no doubt perfectly hardy, so far 
as the effects of cold are concerned, it will be 
well at the approach of winter to cover the 
soil with marsh hay or other litter to keep 
them from being drawn out by frequent 
freezing and thawing. The seeds of the 
double P. roseum are sold by seedsmen gener¬ 
ally ; they are among the most ornamental 
perennial flowers, and while we have no 
positive knowledge that they are so valuable 
as insecticides as the single, the probability 
is that they are. It has been stated that the 
common “ May-weed,” so common along the 
roadsides ( Anthemis Cotula), is, when dried 
and powdered, very poisonous to insects. If 
any of our readers have experimented with 
this, we shall be glad to hear from them. 
Cabbages and Cabbage Stems. 
None of our common vegetables present 
such a wonderful variety of forms as the 
Cabbage. Aside from the heading kinds, 
familiar to all, there are several sorts which 
do not make solid heads, but their leaves, 
when rendered tender by frost, are valued 
by many as Kale or “German Greens.” 
Aside from their 
leafy portions or 
heads, there are 
some varieties of 
the cabbage espe¬ 
cially valued for 
their stems. In¬ 
deed, the stems of 
the common cab- 
bagemaybe made 
of value if the 
cabbages have 
been preserved by 
the old method of 
setting them in 
trenches and cov¬ 
ering with straw 
and boards, or by 
planting them upright in the cellar of some 
out-building. The usual method at present 
is, to lay the cabbages head down and roots 
up, and to cover the heads with earth. This, 
while it preserves the heads, spoils the 
stumps, and those who follow the older plan 
of setting the cabbages, root downwards in 
trenches, have the stumps in good condition 
in spring. When cabbage stumps are well 
preserved and set out early in the garden, 
they will give at least two good cuttings of 
“sprouts,” which will be found most accept¬ 
able “greens”—indeed, so valuable, that in a 
private garden it is worth while to take the 
extra trouble inquired to preserve the stumps, 
as well as the heads of the cabbage. We have 
referred to the different forms assumed by 
the leafy portion, or head of the cabbage; 
the extreme forms of the stem are equally 
striking. In noticing some not generally 
known vegetables last month, Kohl-rabi— 
sometimes called Turnip-cabbage, was men¬ 
tioned. As this is but little known outside of 
city markets, we give an engraving of it. It 
is simply a cabbage which does not form a 
head, but stores up the nutriment that other 
cabbages place in a large bud at the top of 
the stem, in the stem itself, which is swollen 
out to form a globular bulb for the purpose. 
The stories about its being a cross between a 
cauliflower and a turnip are all nonsense. It 
is only a variety of cabbage that makes a 
globular stem. As this stem grows rapidly, 
it is, if taken early enough, tender and very 
delicious to those who like cabbages, for it is 
much more like a cabbage than a turnip. 
When it gets old, it is sti'ingy, and while not 
fit for the table is excellent for domestic ani¬ 
mals. In England it is, on some soils, grown 
in preference to tm-nips, as it is free from 
the insects that attack the turnip crop. What 
a wonderful difference between the Kohl- 
rabi, with its stem at least as thick as it is 
high, and that cabbage which has been grown 
for centuries on the Island of Jersey, whei-e 
the influence of climate and soil has been to 
produce tall stems. These stems are so long 
and so useful in various ways, that an Eng¬ 
lish journal some years ago had an article on 
‘ ‘ Cabbage Timber. ” The visitor to the Island 
of Jersey sees on every place a patch of these 
strange cabbages, with stems 6 to 8 feet or 
more high. The leaves are used for packing 
butter for market and feeding pigs, while the 
stems are put to various uses. In the prin¬ 
cipal town, St. Heliers, the sign, “Maker of 
Cabbage Canes,” is quite common, and few 
persons visit that channing island without 
taking away one or more walking sticks 
made from cabbage stems. Sometimes the 
stems grow to the liight of 10 or 12 feet, when 
they are used as rafters to sheds, etc. It is 
said that one of these cabbages had grown 
to the liight of 16 feet, was left for seed, 
and that a magpie made its nest in the 
branches which sprung from it in the spring. 
The Chinese Yam (Dioscorea Batatas). 
The histoiy of this Yam is interesting as 
showing- how the real merits of a plant may 
be obscured by extravagant claims made con¬ 
cerning it. About 30 years ago the French 
Consul in China sent to the Jardin des 
Plantes, in Paris, some tubers of a Yam, 
Dioscorea Batatas, which was used for 
food in China. It was at the time 
when the rot threatened to put an end to 
potato culture, and every plant promis¬ 
ing to be a useful substitute was regarded 
with interest. So soon as the Yam had suffi¬ 
ciently multiplied, the eminent director of the 
Paris Garden, Decaisne, recently deceased, 
sent to this country to his friend, the late Dr. 
Torrey, a small tuber of this precious plant. 
We well recollect the little tuber, packed in 
a box of cotton, the veiy beginning of the 
Chinese Yam in America. It was a miser¬ 
able little thing, not larger than one’s finger. 
The good Dr. Torrey was a botanist, but not 
a cultivator, and doing what he thought was 
for the best, sent this first tuber to a nursexy- 
man of his acquaintance near New York City. 
He made a most unfortunate choice, for soon 
after the recipient advertised the plant and 
set forth its merits most “extravagantly.” 
The claims made as to 
its value were so far 
beyond all possibility 
that the American Agri¬ 
culturist took an active 
part in showing up their 
absurdity and treated, 
not the plant, but the 
accounts given of it, 
with the ridicule they 
deserved. Yet, after 
more than a quarter of 
a century, the Chinese 
Yam is still offered in 
the catalogues, under its 
proper name, and some¬ 
times there appears a 
sensational advertise¬ 
ment of parties who 
offer it as the “Cin¬ 
namon Vine.” Several 
recent inquiries make it 
proper to describe the 
plant. • It is a perfectly 
hardy climber, which, if 
given support, will run 
to the hight of 15 or 
20 feet, producing an 
abundance of dark green 
leaves, and small spikes 
of whitish fragrant flow¬ 
ers. Without reference 
to anything else, the 
plant has a real value as 
an ornamental climber. It produces a large, 
fleshy tuber, or root, 18 to 24 inches or 
more long; near the surface it is scarcely 
an inch through, but enlarges as it goes 
downward to a diameter of three inches or 
more. If to this pecxxliar shape is added 
the fact that the root is as bi-ittle as glass, it 
will be seen that whatever value it may have 
as food, the difficulty of digging it is such as 
to make it practically unavailable as a crop. 
To dig down two feet to secure a root crop, 
is a formidable task, and the peculiar shape 
and brittleness of the Yam prevents all pull¬ 
ing ; it must be dug from the very bottom. 
As a table vegetable it is very acceptable, 
either boiled or fried. Some friends of ours 
keep a patch of it in their gardens for the 
sake of the occasional variety it affords. It 
is not worth cultivating as a crop, but it may 
be put in some comer as a curiosity, and if 
one is in need of it, he can find exercise in en¬ 
deavoring to dig up a few roots for dinner. 
A friend once suggested, with a view to 
future possibilities, that this Yam should be 
planted in waste places all over the country, 
so that, should a famine occur, there might 
be eveiy where an underground store of avail¬ 
able food. The plant is propagated by cut¬ 
tings of the upper and smaller portion of the 
root, but especially by little bulblets, which 
are about the size of small peas, and pi'O- 
duced abundantly in the axils of the leaves. 
These bulblets are sold by seedsmen generally, 
and they sometimes offer small roots. As an 
ornamental climber,the Chinese Yam is worth 
growing, but not valuable for a food crop. 
