The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-05-28

The Chinese Yam.

Among the many good things which we
1-are getting now, and are likely to get here
after, from China, is the famous yam that
grows in the northern part of the "the &C.
lestial kingdom" and furnishes most pala-
table as well as nutritious food to nearly
100000, 900 of human beings, who rarely
if ever use animal diet. : "
T. All who have read the history of the po-
tato, will remember the peculiar opposi-
ton that was long offered to its introduce
ton into Europe. In some cases orders of
court were issued against its cultivation,
and it was said to poison the blood of those
who used it. But all this folly passed
away, and the potato now enters largely
into the diet of every civilized nation on
the globe. In its various forms it appears
on the table Of prince and peasant and one
whole people has, in our time, been saved
by it from starvation. ,,,.v. 'i''''
Like the potato, the new yam from Chi
ma is likely to encounter; some incredulity
ere American or European enterprise can
succeed in making it popular among the
Western nations; but its advantages are
SO great and so numerous, that business in
terest will speedily befriend it. like tho
beetroot, its value has only to be properly
known in order to be fully appreciated
where now it is neglected. = ~
The Chinese yam is native of the north
temperate zone, and grows up to:the high
er limits of arabic land. It is found in
more than so varieties of size, shape and
color, and yields perennial crops without
replanting. 1t is easily cultivated, and
hourishes in all kinds of soils, even those
hitherto deemed barren and lying waste,
while its extreme hardness enables it to
resist the severest winter in the open
ground. .....r
1t far snrpasses the potato in productive.
ness, and consequently excels it in cheap
ness. 1t has singular combination ofthe
farinaceous qualities of wheat, and of tho
nitrogen contained in animal food, and is,
therefore, so highly nutritious as to super
cede the use of animal food with many per-
sons, Moreover, it has very agreeable
flavor, and thus escapes the drawback of
insipidity.
This remarkable root will keep in the
ground or above it without decaying for
more than year, if ordinary care be exer-
cised, and the whole crop may be left in
the earth, for that matter, during the en-
tire winter. -, :.
Added to all these recommendations, is
the essential fact that it yields abundant
muscle and good healthy blood to men and
quadrupcds.
This vegetable treasure is added to the
worlds resources at the very moment
when something of the kind is most need
ed to assist in providing cheap but whole
some, palatable, and especially strengthen
ing food for the myriad Of workers who
are to develop and improve the vast inte-
rior ofthe American continent, and the spa
ces that lie between Europe and the more
densely inhabited parts of Asia. Wheat
and the potato have done vast service in
in their turn, and will probably remain a
portion of human food so long as our race
lasts. Now there springs up this new escu-
lent-new to the Western world at least
to supply the wants of vaster populations
and more active times. ! Do"
The foresight and beneticence of the AL
mighty are chiefly seen in the apparently
humble, yet sublime adaptations of mature.