The Sweet Potato ani^ its CuLTivATioisr. 347 



Sweet potato culture is carried on, on a large and increasing scale, 

 ill the United States, and in the Southern States the tuber constitutes 

 one of the main vegetable foods of the people. The extent of land 

 under cultivation, which averaged about 600,000 acres during the five 

 years 1910-14, had increased, as stated above, to 1,029,000 acres in 

 1919, with a harvest in November, 1919, of over 103 million bushels, 

 valued at 138 million dollars — an increase of 47 million bushels 

 during the same period. The average yield per acre in 1916 was 91.7 

 bushels, and the average farm price of sweet potatoes, which was 51 

 cents per bushel at the beginning of the century, had increased to 67 

 cents per bushel in 1910 and to 133 cents per bushel in 1918. During 

 1918 only two States produced more than ten million bushels of 

 sweet potatoes, namely, Georgia with 11,960,000 bushels and Alabama 

 with 14,688,000 bushels; in 1919 Texas doubled its previous produc- 

 tion, and both that State and Mississippi also exceeded the ten- 

 million bushel record. Except New Mexico and California, in 

 which the acreage of sweet potatoes was respectively 2000 and 6000 

 acres, there was not appreciable cultivation of the plant in any of 

 the Western and North-western States, the area where it is cultivated 

 extending from New Jersey southwards to Florida, and westwaids by 

 way of the southern regions of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona into 

 Central California. 



Experiments at Barbados. 



The WeH Indian Bulletin, Vol. V, No. 1 (1904), pp. 44-52, 

 contained an account by Hall and Bovell of experiments carried out 

 at Bardados in 1902 for the purpose of ascertaining the best varieties 

 of sweet potatoes for cultivation. Twenty-eight varieties were 

 planted, of which White Gilkes (six months) gave the best returns, 

 the next three in order being Hurley, Minuet, and Vincelonian. 



The White Gilkes was pronounced a variety of very good flavour 

 and kept very well ; white skinned with a white and floury centre 

 surrounded by a yellowish-white layer. Hurley was dull yellow, 

 fairly dry, and floury, with a pale red skin ; inferior in flavour to 

 White Gilkes. Minuet was a dull yellow waxy tuber Avith a yellowish- 

 white skin, and Vincelonian a red-skinned fairly floury potato with 

 a pale yellow centre, mottled with a darker shade of yellow. 



The variety which gave the heaviest yield of tubers was a red- 

 skinned tuber known as Moffard (11,209 lb. per acre), but its yield 

 of starch (3284 lb. per acre) was below that of White Gilkes, and its 

 food value was less than any of the above four varieties. 



The results per acre obtained from these four varieties were as 

 follows : — 



\T ■ i Total cu u T> ,. V, Phosphorus 



Variety. nr • i ^ Starch. rotash. „ / ■ i 



*' Weight. Pentoxide. 



ft. ft. ft. ft. 



Tubers — 



White Gilkes 11,116 3,591 37 16 



Hurley 10,275 3,039 48 18 



Minuet 9,903 2,833 42 22 



Vincelonian 7,823 2,642 24 15 



