DiiCEJIBEll 4. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S CO:\lPANION. 
1 rji) 
‘“The next morning hut one, I wa?? calculating how long it 
would bo helbro the haniper should arrive, and looking for¬ 
ward with eager aul iri])atioii to the pleasure of unpacking it, 
when letters .arrived by post, one of which contained a neat 
little box, which, in its turn, was found to contain a number 
of small, irregular-sha])od little things, about the size of 
Peas, and a good deal like very diminutive earth nuts. I 
puzzled ray brain for some time over these little morsels, 
and was beginning to-. But spare my feelings, Mr. 
bhlitor, and, pray, guess the denouement, or spare me the 
humiliation of tolling it, and imagine how I ‘ came to grief,’ 
when, on referring to the paper which accompanied that 
odious little box, I discovered what its contents really were. 
The Latin proverb, which makes such a to-do about a 
little mouse being the only result of the mountain in 
labour, is, 1 contend, but a feeble illustration of the parallel 
conti'ast of this modern instance. 
“ I will only add, and, I think, it tells well for my natural 
disposition! that on sitting down to dinner that day, and 
espying a dish of magnificent Fluke Kidneys, with their 
jackets on, each confronting me with a broad, mealy- 
moutbed grin Grimaldi might have envied, and looking for 
all the world as if they had been splitting their sides with 
laughter, I felt so conscience-smitten, that I w^as actually 
ashamed to look them in the face. 
“Mine were planted about half-an-ineh deep, on a broad 
ridge in the open ground, in the early part of April; and 
although there followed two or three intense frosts, such as 
would, most certainly, have destroyed Potatoes at a similar 
depth, the greater part of them survived, and in due time 
made their appearance above the surface. True, their 
growth was shy and tai’dy, and throughout the summer 
they ajjpeai’ed to take neither to the soil nor climate very 
kindly; still, quite as much so, I think, as could be expected, 
considering tlie weak vitality and small size of the sots, as 
compared with what sets of tubers w^eighing from one to 
throe pounds ought to be. Let mo observe, too, that these 
little productions w'ere not really sets at all, or, at any rate, 
not legitimate representatives, how'ever diminutive, of the 
true Yam tuber, but were obtained by subjecting poi’tions of 
the foliage to conditions of artificial forcing, so calculated to 
stimulate vitality as to force the parts sitbjected to throw 
out these spurious little tubercles. 
“ To expect plants of a healthy and vigorous growth from 
such, would scarcely, I suppose, be consonant with reason, 
or with the experience of other growths of abnormal origin. 
Let us, then, extend our trial to another year or two; or, at 
any i-ate, until w^e can make a fair start wdth good-sized sets, 
and allow some little time for the plant to become acclimated, 
and I have not much fear but that we shall succeed, so' far 
as obtaining w'eigbt of produce from the plant grown in the 
open ground is concei'ned. But their comes the cui hono 
question; or what useful purpose will it serve ? On this 
point, I feel quite disposed to scout the idea that this 
novelty is likely, under any circumstances, to supersede our 
old friend the Potato; or that it is even likely to bo over 
advantageously cultivated on a large scale, as an auxiliary to 
the ordinary root-productions of the farm. The great 
depth to which the full-sized tuber extends below the 
surface, and the impracticable character of the stem and 
foliage above it, seem to preclude such an expectation. 
There appeai-s to be no sufficient reason, however, why it 
sliould not occupy a place in our gardens as a useful 
addition to our present list of culinary plants, if only the 
qualities claimed for it by the French Professor, M. M. 
Decaisne, prove to be correct. It would seem, from the 
analysis, to be far richer than any of our roots in the 
abundance of starch it contains; and this being one of the 
chief nutritive ingredients in such edibles, this Yam may 
be expected to be proportionably valuable, supposing it to 
possess the flavour requisite to render it palatable when 
cooked. On this last point I must confess to some mis¬ 
givings, though it is obviously one on wbich it is, as yet, 
too soon to hazard a decided opinion, and the more so, as it 
is a matter in which tastes so notoriously differ.—W. C. G.” 
In examining closely this paper, as in duty bound, 
I must assume lour points as texts. 
1st. Quality of roots. 
2nd. Aggregate produce. 
•fird. Hardihood. 
llh. Suitability as a field crop, or a contributory to ' 
rotations. ^ 
As to Qu.xt.ity of Root, there seems little occasion to i 
doubt that it contains a valuable amount of starch, as ! 
“ \Y. C. G.” affirms, who knows much more about starch | 
than I do. Rut as an eatable root for the human 
species, something more than starch must be taken in 
consideration. Only look at the hubbub that was raised 
about the Potato disease; we w'ore all to give up Yorh 
Reyents, Flukes, and the rest of them, for Mangold, 
Carrots, &c., which, however good in company with 
boiled beef, arc not quite so well qualified to bo served 
up with the countryman’s milk, or butter-milk. I 
boiled a Yam of about three ounces weight the other 
day, and my family either partook of it, or stared at it; 
for my part, I though it, in texture, much like to “ soap 
after a day’s washing ; ” in texture, I mean chiclly. It 
w'as what I must term all slime. As to flavour, nobody 
could find fault with it, it had'none! A Scorzonera ami 
a Salsafy root were boiled with it, and I thought them 
far superior. All this may bo called prejudice, and it 
may bo; bat who can change the habits of our masses 
even in a generation ? w'ho can do away with tea and 
tobacco while to bo had, supposing that it ought so to be? 
Aggregate Produce. —For my part, 1 cannot say 
much about this; we have all this to learn. But 1 
think it has been named, by those who originally took 
the root in hand, that proper-sized tubers w'ould produce, 
under proper circumstances, one or two roots some¬ 
thing like Parsnips, and, occasionally, a subordinate, 
half-sized tuber or two, for seed in the ensuing year. I 
suppose, however, as in this and other anticipations, I 
may prove to be occasionally in error, I do not wish to 
be considered as affirming anything in a dogmatical 
spirit. 
Hardihood. —Hero, again, we have another matter 
for consideration ; and I must at once take the liberty of 
directing attention to two points, which must not be 
confounded; viz, hardihood in the rest ?tate, and in the 
growing condition. We all remember that autumn- 
planting of Potatoes was said to be the chief remedy 
for the disease and other things; but the whole gist 
of this j^i’oceediug—as in jiart a mistaken idea—arose 
through the advocates of the practice forgetting tluit 
neither Potatoes, nor any other roots, or seeds, like to 
be below a certain level. Surely, this is an incon¬ 
trovertible fact! The fear of Jack Erost before their 
eyes caused people to plant them deeper than was 
suitable. But setting aside autumn-planting; what about 
spring frosts, and those of early autumn ? 1 do not 
know how all the island suflers, but wo had our Yams 
snubbed down by 9° of frost about the middle of May, 
and, again, another sharp i)inch of 3° or on the 
8th of September finished their history. And, indeed, 
during the very hottest part of summer our plants never 
showed that most desirable sign—of answering to a call 
of climate—that we see manifested in our old-fashioned 
Potatoes, or even our Kidney Beans, &c. 
Suitability for forming a dart in Rotations.— 
Hero we have, as I think, the best feature of all in Y^am 
culture. As deepeners of the soil they possess un¬ 
doubted powers. Our roots, weighing some three ounces 
each, were placed on raised beds, at least half a-yard 
above the ordinary level. I employed an old farming 
chap to get them up, and watched the operation; and 
as I wished to get to his own secret impressions, J 
gravely observed, that this root was to supersede the 
Potato; and told our hero that I had an impression that 
his grandchildren and mine would be reared on these 
same Yearns. I will not attenqit to describe his counte¬ 
nance while listening to this affected gravity, but 
may merely observe, that after giving me a penetrat¬ 
ing look, he remarked, that he thought they would be 
