CCLTCBE OF SWEET POTATOES. 



ffound. Perhaps it still more resembles wild Buckwheat, though its leaf is larijjer 

 and a yellower green. The vines often make eight feet in length in a rich and moist 

 soil, though usually four feet is as long as is desirable. In rich soil and moist weather 

 they frequently throw down roots at intervals along the vines, which produce tubers 

 at these points, and so fill the whole soil with tubers. This, however, is not desirable, 

 as these scattering tubers are usually very imperfectly ripened. The tubers almost 

 always stand up lengthwise in the soil, instead of lying horizontally, as in the case of 

 the common Potato. 



Preparatorxj Culture in the Ilot-hed. — Having procured your seed tubers, bury 

 them in an ordinary hot-bed, about the 20th of April in Central New York. Place 

 them lengthwise, and nearly end to end, in rows across the bed, the rows about six 

 inches apart, covering them about three inches deep with soil. In two or three weeks, 

 according to the heat of the bed, each tuber will throw up from five to thirty sprouts 

 close to the side of the parent. As soon as these are three or four inches high, take 

 up the tuber carefully and break them ofi" close to the parent, so as to save the side 

 roots. The tubers may then be replaced for the production of a second and even a 

 third crop of sprouts. Some prefer breaking them off in the ground, but I have 

 always found it safe to take the tubers quite out of the ground for this purpose. This 

 method of procuring plants is practiced even in the Southern States, since otherwise 

 too many shoots would be produced. With us this mode becomes further indispens- 

 able as the only means of getting our plants sufficiently early. 



Mode of Culture in the Field. — Plow your ground, and throw it into ridges five or 

 six feet apart. This is needful — first, because your tubers, needing to spread side- 

 wise, will form more readily than when penetrating deep into the soil ; and secondly, 

 they will thus be less likely to form roots along the vine. Set the plants on the 

 ridge, about fifteen inches apart, inserting them in the soil just as though they were 

 Tomato or Cabbage plants. Should the weather be hot, cover the newly set plants 

 with any large leaves, as of Pie-plant, Balm of Gilead, &c. Hoe frequently until the 

 vines cover the soil, but without increasing the height of the ridge. In wet and hot 

 weather, it might be useful slightly to lift up the plants with a long, smooth pole, to 

 prevent them from rooting. 



I have not observed that the Sweet Potato is liable to disease, otherwise than, as a 

 tropical plant, it fears cold and rainy alternations of weather. 



Digging, Yield, Mode of Preserving, d-c. — Dig as soon as the vines are killed by 

 the frost. Spread the tubers thinly on a dry, cool floor, where they may often be pre- 

 served for gradual use until midwinter. 



I am not prepared to speak very positively of the yield. Undoubtedly it will 

 usually be less than that of ordinary Potatoes. In the hot, moist season of 1851, 

 however, the yield was very large, and the whole cost of production not more than 

 that of ordinary Potatoes by the bushel. 



Qualitg.—UeTe, after all, is the failing point of this crop. In a dry, warm season, 

 when grown in rather poor, sandy soil, they are often quite eatable, and are 

 acceptable to those not accustomed to those produced at the south. Often, how 



