YAMS AND POTATOES. 45 
kinds flourish in the mountains; the shape of the 
root is generally long and round, and the substance 
rather fibrous, but remarkably farinaceous and 
sweet. The kind most in use is generally of a 
dark brown colour, with a roughish skin; it is 
called by the natives obura. 
The yam is cultivated with much care, though 
to no very great extent, on account of the labour 
and attention required. The sides of the inferior 
hills, and the sunny banks occasionally met with in 
the bottoms of the valleys, are selected for its 
growth. Here, a number of small terraces are 
formed one above another, covered with a mixture 
of rich earth and decayed leaves. The roots 
intended for planting are kept in baskets till they 
begin to sprout; a yam is then taken, and each 
eye, or sprout, cut off, with a part of the outside 
of the root, an inch long and a quarter of an inch 
thick, attached to it; these pieces, sometimes con¬ 
taining two eyes each, are spread upon a board, 
and left in some part of the house to dry; the 
remainder of the root is baked and eaten. This 
mode of preparing the parts for planting does not 
appear to result from motives of economy, as is the 
case in some parts where the Irish potato is pre¬ 
pared for planting in a similar manner; but 
because the natives imagine it is better thus to 
plant the eyes when they first begin to open, or 
germinate, with only a small part of the root, than 
to plant the whole yam, which they say is likely to 
rot. Whether the same plan might be adopted in 
planting the sweet potato, and other roots, I am 
not prepared to say, as it is only in raising the 
yam that it is practised in the horticulture of the 
natives. When the pieces are sufficiently dry, 
they are carefully put in the ground with the 
