382 STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



At our annual fairs, it is rare that the best potatoes get the premiums. Bulk 

 contributes most largely to the award — water in organized cells piled up 

 together in large tubers. This is admitted to be all wrong; but how to right 

 this mistaken method of passing judgment when the judges are usually not 

 skilled in ascertaining the facts which should be the basis of their awards is a 

 fair question. Mr. "William Eowe, of Grand Eapids, at the recent meeting of 

 our local horticultural society, made a point that is worth recording. 



lie advocated a new plan of exhibiting potatoes — that is, new in our country. 

 He said we should do away with showing potatoes in pecks, half-bushels, 

 baskets and barrels, and exhibit them on plates the same as fruit. He would 

 make this distinction in methods, however: Two plates of each variety should 

 be required, one made up of tubers in their natural state, and the other should 

 be a plate of the same variety cooked. He said by this means even the eye 

 could detect fair quality; and if desired the sense of taste could be brought in 

 to assist the judgment. 



Mr. Rowe said that in England this method had been practiced for a long 

 time, and at an English show the big potatoes rarely took the blue ribbon. 



C. W. G. 



SWEET POTATOES. 



A Virginian gives his method of growing sweet potatoes, in the New York 

 Tribune, and says that in the same manner they may be grown successfully 

 when one hundred days of tropical weather can be had. 



To get plants, make a hot-bed about middle or end of April (at the North) 

 in a warm place ; use about one foot of fresh horse-stable manure, on which 

 put about three inches of soil; on that place little sweet potatoes, or large ones 

 cut in two, flat sides down, leaving a little space between each ; cover them 

 with about three inches of light soil, then with pine, chaff, or straw, over which 

 lay boards to keep in heat and shed rain. When the shoots break through the 

 soil, uncover, and plant out when all danger of frost is surely over. The sv/eet 

 potato is one of the tenderest of plants; a chill which would not hurt an 

 Irish potato may be fatal to it or to the potatoes when grown ; keep them 

 warm, dry, and ventilated. I Cud old rich land best for them, say an old gar- 

 den, though they will grow on manured land. I prepare the land by deep, 

 thorough ploughing, and when just ready to plant, throw two furrows 

 together, making three and a half to four feet rows, and transplant at eighteen 

 inches apart along the top of the rows. After they have all rooted, I go in 

 with a one-horse plough and keep the soil in perpetual motion about them, 

 making sure to give a very thorough working with both plough and hoe after 

 all the vines have began to run. After that the land does the rest of the 

 work, and by September 1st they are fit to eat, and England's Queen has not a 

 vegetable on her table half so delicious. 



As to varieties, he says by all means take the Haynian ; it is white, firm, and 

 dry, and shaped something like a rutabaga. It has large, round leaves, not 

 notched like the Angola, which it resembles, but excels. The Ilayman being 

 early and productive makes good-sized potatoes on rich laud in little over one 

 hundred days of tropical weather. The large red sorts are even earlier and 

 more productive, but lack the deliciously delicate flavor of the Haymaii. The 

 yellow sorts called Red Noses and Hanovers are raised to ship, but they are late 



