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Rh weigh more than 1 ℔. The plant grows freely in deep sandy soil, moderately enriched. The sets, consisting of pieces of the roots, may be planted in March or April, and require no other culture than the staking of the climbing stems. They should not be dug up before November, the chief increase in their size taking place in autumn. They sometimes strike downwards 2 or 3 ft. into the soil, and must be carefully dug out, the upper slender part being reserved for propagation, and the lower fleshy portion eaten after having been allowed a few days to dry. The tubers of D. alata sometimes weigh 100 lb. Most of the yams contain an acrid principle, which is dissipated in cooking.

The only European Dioscorea is that known as D. pyrenaica, a native of the Pyrenees, a remarkable instance of a species growing at a long distance from all its conveners. True yams must not be confounded with the sweet potato, Ipomoea Batatas, as they sometimes are in London markets. The common black bryony (Tamus communis) of hedges in England is closely allied to the yams of the tropics, and has a similar root-stock, which is reputed to be poisonous.

For the history of the yam, and its cultivation and uses in India, see G. Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, iii. (1890).

 YAMA (Sanskrit "twin," in allusion to his being twin with his sister Yami, traditionally the first human pair), in Hindu mythology, judge of men and king of the unseen world. He was the first mortal to die, and having discovered the way to the other world is the guide of the dead. Three hymns in the Rig Veda are addressed to him.  YAMAGATA, ARITOMO, (1838–), Japanese field-marshal, was born in Choshu. He began life as an ordinary samurai and rose steadily in reputation and rank, being created a count in 1884, a marquess in 1895 (after the war with China) and a prince in 1907 (after the war with Russia). He twice held the post of premier, and was the leader of Japanese conservatism, being a staunch opponent of party cabinets.  YAMBOLI, a town of Bulgaria, on the river Tunja, 49 m W. of Burgas by rail. Pop. (1906) 15,708. It has a large agricultural trade, being situated in the centre of one of the chief corn districts. In the town are the remains of old fortifications, and the ruins of a fine mosque. The bezetlan, or old market-house, is entire, but is now used as a military magazine. An ancient Macedonian town lay some 4 m. N., but Yamboli is first mentioned in the 11th century, when it was known by the Byzantines as Dampolis or Hyampolis.  YAMÈTHIN, a town and district in the Meiktila division of Upper Burma. The town has a station on the railway 275 m. N. of Rangoon. Pop. (1901) 8680. It is an important centre of trade with the Shan States. The district lies between the Shan States and the Meiktila, Magwe and Toungoo districts; area, 4258 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 243,197, showing an increase of 18% in the decade. The staple crop is rice, which is irrigated from tanks and canals. Millets and oil-seeds are grown in the N., where drought has more than once caused distress. There are special industries of inlaid metal-work and ornamental pottery. Besides the chief town, Pyinmana and Pyawbwè, both also on the railway, carry on an active trade with the Shan States.  YANAON, or, a French settlement in India, near the mouth of the river Godavari, within the Godavari district of Madras. It is situated in 16° 44′ N. and 82° 13′ E.; area, 5 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 5005. Yanaon was founded about 1750, and followed the vicissitudes of French history in S. India. It was finally restored to the French by the treaty of 1815.  YANCEY, WILLIAM LOWNDES (1814–1863), American political leader, son of Benjamin Cudworth Yancey, an able lawyer of South Carolina, of Welsh descent, was born near the Falls of the Ogeechee, Warren county, Georgia, on the 10th of August 1814. After his father's death in 1817, his mother remarried and removed to Troy, New York. Yancey attended Williams College for one year, studied law at Greenville, South Carolina, and was admitted to the bar. As editor of the Greenville (South Carolina) Mountaineer (1834–35), he ardently opposed nullification. In 1835 he married a wealthy woman, and in the winter of 1836–1837 removed to her plantation in Alabama, near Cahaba (Dallas county), and edited weekly papers there and in Wetumpka (Elmore county), his summer home. The accidental poisoning of his slaves in 1839 forced him to devote himself entirely to law and journalism; he was now an impassioned advocate of State's Rights and supported Van Buren in the presidential campaign of 1840. He was elected in 1841 to the state House of Representatives, in which he served for one year; became state senator in 1843, and in 1844 was elected to the national House of Representatives to fill a vacancy, being re-elected in 1845. In Congress his ability and his unusual oratorical gifts at once gained recognition. In 1846, however, he resigned his seat, partly on account of poverty, and partly because of his disgust with the Northern Democrats, whom he accused of sacrificing their principles to their economic interests. His entire energy was now devoted to the task of exciting resistance to anti-slavery aggression. In 1848 he secured the adoption by the state Democratic convention of the so-called "Alabama Platform," which was endorsed by the legislatures of Alabama and Georgia and by Democratic state conventions in Florida and Virginia, declaring that it was the duly of Congress not only to allow slavery in all the territories but to protect it, that a territorial legislature could not exclude it, and that the Democratic party should not support for president or vice president a candidate "not… openly and unequivocally opposed to either of the forms of excluding slavery from the territories of the United States mentioned in these resolutions." When the conservative majority in the national Democratic convention in Baltimore refused to incorporate his ideas into the platform, Yancey with one colleague left the convention and wrote an Address to the People of Alabama, defending his course and denouncing the cowardice of his associates. Naturally, he opposed the Compromise of 1850, and went so far as openly to advocate secession; but the conservative element was in control of the state. Disappointment of the South with the results of "Squatter Sovereignty" caused a reaction in his favour, and in 1858 he wrote a letter advocating the appointment of committees of safely, the formation of a League of United Southerners, and the repeal of the laws making the African slave-trade piracy. After twelve years' absence from the national conventions of the Democratic party, he attended the Charleston convention in April 1860, and again demanded the adoption of his ideas. Defeated by a small majority, he again left the hall, followed this time by the delegates of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and two of the three delegates from Delaware. On the next day the Georgia delegation and a majority of the Arkansas delegation withdrew. In the Baltimore convention of the seceders he advocated the nomination of John C. Breckinridge, and he made a tour of the country on his behalf. In Alabama he was the guiding spirit in the secession convention and delivered the address of welcome to Jefferson Davis on his arrival at Montgomery. He refused a place in President Davis's cabinet. On the 31st of March 1861 he sailed for Europe as the head of a commission sent to secure recognition of the Confederate government, but returned in 1862 to take a seat in the Confederate Senate, in which he advocated a more vigorous prosecution of the war. On account of his failing health, he left Richmond early in 1863, and on the 27th of July died at his home near Montgomery.

See J. W. Du Bose, Life and Times of W. L. Yancey (Birmingham, Ala., 1892); W. G. Brown, The Lower South in American History (New York, 1902); and Joseph Hodgson, The Cradle of the Confederacy (Mobile, Ala., 1876).

 YANG-CHOW FU, a prefectural city in the province of Kiangsu, China, forming the two distinct cities of Kiang-tu and Kanch'üan, on the Grand Canal, in 32° 21′ N., 119° 15′ E. Pop. about 100,000. The walls are between three and four miles in circumference. The streets are well supplied with shops, and there are handsome temples, colleges, and other public buildings. There was a serious religious outbreak in 1868, when Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, opened a station here; but Yang-chow is now one of the centres of the Protestant<section end="Yang-Chow Fu" />