183 



The temperature should be kept at about 80° or 85° F. during 

 the curing period and reduced gradually to 55° after the potatoes 

 are cured. 



Fluctuations of temperature should be avoided throughout the 

 storage period. 



The varieties of sweet potatoes that the markets demand should 

 be grown. 



The potatoes should be carefully graded, cleaned, and packed 

 in neat and attractive packages. 



Sweet potatoes should never be marketed in bags or in bulk. 



Veneer barrels or bushel hampers are desirable packages to 

 use during mild weather anrl double-headed stave barrels or tight 

 boxes in cold weather. 



HEDYCHIUM. 



(From the Tropical Agriculturist.) 



Peradeniya, May 15, 1913. 



At the tenth ordinary meeting of the Royal Society of Arts 

 held in London on February 12th last a paper on "New Sources 

 of Supply for the Manufacture of Paper," by Messrs. Clayton 

 Beadle and Henry P. Stevens, was read. Wood pulp is the raw 

 material from which paper is chiefly made but it is now being 

 realized that the world's supply of wood pulp is showing signs of 

 exhaustion and that prices are rising. It is stated that the cost 

 of ])ro(luction of ground wood pulp has advanced 50 per cent, in 

 the United States during the last 10 years. 



The paper trade has been turning its attention to other sources 

 of supply of raw material and one of the plants to which atten- 

 tion is drawn is Hcdychium coronariuin. 



This plant is of tiie same natural order as ginger and carda- 

 mom, and grows profusely in Brazil as shown in the frontispiece 

 taken from the Kew Bulletin. 



It is propagated by root-stocks from which a crop in one year 

 might be expected ; from seed, two years would probably be re- 

 (|uired. It grows in damp localities near water courses at eleva- 

 tions ranging, in Ceylon, from sea level to 4,500 feet. In Brazil 

 it has taken possession of land cleared for sugar which suggests 

 that land suitable for the growth of sugar-cane would be suitable 

 also for Hedychium. In that country it grows in a thick jungle 

 to a height of from 3 to 6 feet; as many as 100 to 150 stems 

 being counted in a square yard. After cutting down, a period of 

 from 4 to 5 months elapses before a second crop is ready, the 

 rainfall being about 60 inches per annum. 



