Trobriand Yams

Mr. A. H. Vegan's Experiment

MRS. C. E. CAMERON, well known in Tonga and Fiji, called at the “PIM” office this month on an unusual mission. Could we tell her where she could get some of those giant yams brought from the Trobriand Islands about 1932 by Mr. A. H. Vogan, and handed over to certain sub-tropical planters in Australia? One of her sons (all four are in the armed services) intends to become a planter in Queensland, and believes that something could be done with yam cultivation.

Mrs. Cameron said that the story of Mr. Vogan’s yams was published in the ‘ PIM” over 10 years ago, and she thought that some of the yams had been handed over to the Queensland Department of Agriculture for experiment. While in Brisbane, she had interviewed the Depart ment, but officials there seemed blankly ignorant of yams—Trobriand, or any other variety.

We turned up old “PIM” hies and dis covered, from the issue of December 1934, that Mr. Vogan gave yams to Mr A. H. Joubert, of the Tweed River, New South Wales; and that Mr. Joubert dis tributed seed yams, later, to about 70 different people.

So then we telephoned Mr. Vogan. This virile old gentleman (he is now 86 years of age, and lives in Sydney) was very happy to think that his attempt to make an excellent foodstuff better known had been remembered by someone. Mr. Jou bert is dead; but the giant yams are still being grown, and Mr. Vogan undertook to send details to Mrs. Cameron.