312 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 15, 1859. 
iSept'ember, also dry and fine, the thermometer being 88° on 
the 14th. 
October, this, also, dry, warm, fine, and more clear than usual. 
November, sharp frost, with ice two inches thick in the middle 
of the month, with, hoWcVer, very little rain. Foggy towards 
the end. 
December, tliild, but dull and foggy. Very little frost. 
I bClieVc the past year has been a dry one all over England. 
A Mend, writing from Herts, reports a fall of twenty inches there 
the past year, instead of 30.39 in 1857. Others, more northwards, 
record a similar diminution, and I trust that some will report 
their observations in The Cottage Gardener. To such as 
keep regular registers, I may observe, that the average fall of 
rain, at this place, for the three years preceding the last one, lia3 
been upwards of twenty-four inches ; that of 1857, being 24.33 ; 
1856, 27.79 ; and 1855 (a dry year), 20.84. The past year was, 
as stated above, 16.33, one-third less than the average.— 
J. Robson, Linton Parle, Kent. 
THE CHINESE YAM. 
(Dioscorea Batatas.) 
Having read many good accounts of this curious plant, and 
recommendations of it as an excellent substitute for the Potato, 
and having seen some of its odd-looking roots shown at the 
Horticultural Exhibitions, I felt a very strong wish to grow it 
myself. A friend gave me a small plant of it in a pot about the 
beginning of May, 1857. I had read Mr. Beaton’s hints upon 
its culture in The Cottage Gardener, that it was quite hardy, 
and that a good soil, suitable for the Parsnip, was just the thing 
for the Yam also to grow in. All this I could very readily 
understand; but, having only this one little plant, I wished to 
be the more choice over it. With this view I selected a free, 
open situation, on the south side of the kitchen garden, near to 
a main walk, so that any little requirement should never escape 
my notice. Here a hole was dug out three feet in diameter, and 
to the full depth of our working soil. This was filled with rich 
fermenting material, which was almost three-parts rotten. This 
was well put together, and all the mould put on it that was 
dug out, making it some fifteen to twenty inches thick upon the 
manure—altogether, just the thing for a pot of hand-glass 
Cucumbers or Vegetable Marrows. 
Upon this mound my little specimen of the Yam was planted. 
It was just putting up a little shoot, and it was also indulged 
with a hand-glass by the way of protection. As soon as the 
plant appeared to be fairly established and doing well, the glass 
was taken entirely away, and three or four sticks were stuck 
round it as a protection. Every attention was given it by way 
of earth-stirring, &c. As the season advanced, I could not fancy 
that such a slender, black Bryony-like plant would ever produce 
a very large root. Being told it must remain undisturbed for 
another year, this was done. The second season, the plant 
certainly put up very strong stems ; these were carefully at¬ 
tended to, and supported by three or four strong pea-sticks, to 
which the stems soon attached themselves. Seeing such vigour, 
and fancying how it must be luxuriating in the bulk of decom¬ 
posed manure, upon which it had been first planted, made ms 
think, what an enormous root there would be by the autumn to 
take up. During the season, the plant formed a huge mass of 
stems, and produced lots of little, as I believe, imperfect, or male, 
blossoms. 
After the stems of the plant had died down naturally, and 
towards the 1st of November, 1858,—making it of nearly two 
years’ standing,—I was somewhat anxious to know the result. 
The thought was taken to go far enough round the root, and to 
work up to it with care, moving all the soil until the roots were 
visible, both the old one, which was formed in 1857, and the new 
one of 1858, running down side by side—not touching each 
other. The new root was produced from the very tip of the 
crown of the old one, where it put out a mass of long and stringy 
fibre. The old root put one in mind of an old Potato-set—perfect 
in form, but so decomposed, that it fell to bits on being touched. 
The new-formed root was still as firm as a post. Its knobby, or 
tuberous, part had forced its way into the rubbly bottom that 
forms our subsoil, which is composed of something of everything 
—such as broken bricks, flints, stones, tiles, bones, pieces of 
chalk, Ac.—so that the pickaxe was required to relieve it. Here 
it struck me, whether it was an improvement in its growth or 
not ? for about ten handsome, good-sized Kidney-Potato-sliaped 
pieces could bo readily broken, or cut off from the main body, 
and might have been passed for Kidney Potatoes in reality, yet 
leaving the thick part of the body to bo cut into suitable shapes 
for use. I certainly had expected to find the root very much 
larger, after two seasons’ growth. 
The accompanying is a very faithful representation of the 
Yarn. It was about twenty inches long, and weighed about 4 lbs. 
Now, having seen, recommended, and stated, that the natural 
habits and hardiness of this useful and excellent esculent are so 
well known, and that it is only to plant the sets a foot apart every 
way from each other, in a soil suitable to the Carrot and Parsnip; 
and, at about the same time as that sowing is performed, attend 
to surface-stirring the earth, and water a few times with liquid 
manure, and all will be well. The Parsnips early thinned out to 
the distance of a foot every way, and the earth-stirring, &c., 
attended to, until the plants bocame too large for the operator to 
work amongst them, most likely would give a fine and profitable 
yield. But if I were going to plant a hundred sets of the Chinese 
Yam, I should plant them in rows, running from north to south ; 
and if I choose to allow them only a foot apart from set to set in 
the row, I should certainly allow them from two feet and a half 
to three feet apart from row to row ; and, instead of allowing 
their twining stems to run about at will, I should have one or 
two strong pca-sticks, four to five feet long, placed to each plant 
for the stems to coil to. These sticks to be stuck in the ground 
six inches or so from the collar of the plant, so as not to injure 
its roots; and if two sticks, or even three, be used, I would 
place them so that their tops should come together. By this 
method of planting, sufficient, room would be left for the operator 
to use his hoe, and let air and light shine in among the plants ; 
and the whole would be in a tidy, workman-like manner to look 
at.— T. Weaver, Gardener to the Warden of Winchester College. 
POTATOES ON GROUND NOT FRESHLY 
MANURED. 
I was glad to observe in a recent number, an article on the 
cultivation of the Potato without manure; and as I consider it 
the duty of every gardener, professional or amateur, to try every 
reasonable suggestion, in order to redeem this useful and excellent 
esculent from the destruction which threatens it, I offer no 
apology in giving my experience for the benefit of your readers. 
I have grown Potatoes in my present garden for about ten 
years. They did not succeed for the first three or four years, 
owing to the clayey nature of the soil, although I limed and 
manured it well. 1 always used manuro in planting thorn ; but 
