The six grew above ground very slowly and weakly, except the two first, and these were three feet long by the end of June. They all continued to grow till frost, when the average length of the four weakly ones was about three feet, and, of the other two, probably ten feet During the summer, the ground was kept free from weeds, and occasionally hoed; only to the two strong ones I gave two or three good soakings of liquid manure, in July and August.

"When the vines were killed by the frost, I proceeded very anxiously to dig them up, to see what was under! Having heard that they went down deep, the spade was sent the whole length of the iron, and the hill thrown up. The crop was something astonishing ! In the two best hills there were nine roots, averaging about four inches long, and as thick as a man's finger. In the other four hills were eight more roots, each rather less than those from the two first hills ! And this was all, except seven small tubers (like peas) which had formed in the axils of the leaves on the vine that came up first, where it got covered with earth. I was quite sure there was nothing else, for I dug all over carefully, as deeply as the spade would go, and examined closely. A humbug I now thought it, of course. A friend suggested that perhaps I had not found all; so I began at one of the hills again, and after getting down about eighteen inches, I discovered the top of a piece of root, which exactly fitted the bottom of the centre one I had first removed, and which I then remembered looked raw, as if broken off. I traced this root down! down! till I thought the end never would come.

At thirty inches from the surface, I at last touched bottom, and turned out the remainder of the root - a piece about twenty inches long, an inch in diameter at the top, and three inches in diameter at the bottom. Adding to this the piece first obtained (about six inches), I had a root twenty-six inches long! gradually enlarging from less than a quarter of an inch at the top to three inches at the bottom. There was still some inches long of thin root by which it reached the surface, which I did not reckon. It resembled a large parsnip growing wrong end up, only the surface was fine, and covered with minute rootlets. All the others were now similarly examined, except the meanest of all in upper growth; and as the ground was then freezing hard, that was left unexplored.

"In the next best hill, I obtained a similar bottom piece, about fourteen inches long, making a whole root of eighteen inches in length, but rather thicker than the first. One of the other three hills gave up a root ten inches long, and the other two averaged eight inches, all thinner than the two first I thus made a discovery in every hill, and one that surprised and pleased me.

" The largest root was boiled ten minutes. The skin peeled readily off, like thin tissue-paper, and revealed a mass of snow-white farina, perfectly light and dry, which all pronounced excellent in quality - in fact, delicious. It was so much relished, I had to secrete the stock to preserve it. To my taste, it was like a mixture of first-rate mealy potato with ground almonds. My family all decided they would give up potatoes at once, if enough of this new substitute could be obtained.

"The following spring (1857), my man began to dig the ground over where they had grown the year before, and, to our great surprise, turned up another root, in the unexplored hill. This was, altogether, about twenty-one inches long, and had remained in the ground all that severe winter entirely unhurt.

" I now divided my stock into one hundred and twelve small sets, but lost about thirty from the following cause: When cut, the fresh surface is covered with thick, white, gummy milk, which hardens if left in a dry place; but not knowing this, and being then unprepared to plant them, they were put in a damp cellar, and thirty of them rotted. They should have been well dried, and kept dry till planted.

" In the last week in March (1857), my whole stock was committed to the earth. They were now planted in a still poorer, cold, and wet place. They vegetated in May, but seemed not to make much growth till July, when the majority were about equal to my two best hills of last year. The ground had been manured with fresh stable dung, and some guano, both of which are hurtful, at least when used at the time of planting, and near the surface.

" In the early part of May, while hoeing on the ground occupied by the Dios-coreas the year before, I was surprised to see a fine, vigorous vine, from a chip broken off in the digging up, and left in the ground all winter; or, it might have been one of the axillary tubers. At all events, it made the earliest and most vigorous growth during the summer, and, in the fail, produced one of my best roots. My main bed was planted one foot apart each way, and during the whole of the summer, the top growth was quite meagre, on the whole. The first week in November I dug up again, and the average yield was about the same (one hill with another) as the average of my first six hills; but, by layering many of the vines during the summer, I obtained a good number of axillary tubers. I have thus got from my original three dollars' worth quite a stock - enough to plant probably a quarter of an acre of ground, with a few for tasting. The result, on the whole, has given me a good opinion of the Dioscorea, and I think that, when the cultivation of it is better understood, we shall succeed well with it.

My own experience tends to show that it should be planted in the fall or early in spring, and that, if any manure is used, it must be well decomposed, and must not be in contact with the root in the early stages of its growth. It should, in fact, be put at the bottom of the digging, and that should be at least thirty inches deep. Above all, the ground should be light and deep. Any hardness in the soil, or any obstruction whatever, seems to hinder its growth both by preventing the vine from shooting up, and, also, by twisting and dwarfing the root.