356 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



crop is not generally remunerative. The proper soil is a light sandy one, or any land that is 

 well impregnated with sand. Stable manure is the best fertilizer, and after that cow-pen 

 manure. In this section mold from the woods and pine tags are used in large quantities, the 

 same land being often put in potatoes. I never have been able to make good sweet potatoes 

 with guano or artificial fertilizers alone; but it is necessary to supply coarse manure of some 

 kind to mix with it. My plan is, to drill all the stable and cow-pen manure I can spare for 

 my potatoes, and by that means it goes much farther. Three feet is the best distance for the 

 rows to be apart, and I am accustomed to list on the manure that I have drilled in the rows, 

 throwing up the list as high as I can with a single plow, putting two furrows together. I 

 make it a rule never to list in a day more than I can set that day, as the plants live better in 

 a fresh soil. 



The distance apart for the plants in the row is twenty inches, and it is best to set them 

 deep in the ground, as, if they should be cut off by cut-worms or anything else, they will be 

 more apt to come out again. The evening is the best time for setting out, and after a good 

 rain in May, you can set usually for four or five evenings. In June the sun is so hot it is 

 very difficult to get plants to live without a good season. In the cultivation of potatoes the 

 secret of success is never to let them get grassy, but work them as soon as a crust forms on 

 the ground. If they get grassy, it is impossible to remove the grass without injuring the 

 potato roots; and it is easier to work them three times when there is no grass, than once 

 when they are grassy. You must always see that the hoes do not cut into the hill, but 

 merely scrape the ground around the plant and then pull up a little dirt to it. 



Now, by my plan of horse cultivation, I save a great deal of hoe work. First, throw 

 out in about ten days after setting out the plants the little balk that was left in throwing up 

 the list, and try to get the dirt as high as you can on the list, so as to smother out any grass 

 that might start to grow on the list where the potato-plant is. Before this dirt that I have 

 thrown up by this plowing commences to put up grass, I run a cotton-scraper, (which is 

 attached to Watt s A and B plow,) as close as I can to the potato-plants, throwing the dirt 

 from them t$ying not to let it cut more than half an inch deep. A good plowman can run 

 the point of the scraper in less than an inch of the potatoes. 



If the vines have run any, of course I have to send a man ahead to throw the vines in 

 every alternate balk, and the scraper has to first run all through the patch on one side of the 

 list, and then have the vines thrown back on that side that has been worked and run to the 

 other side. The last working with the plow is to throw all this dirt the scraper has pulled 

 away from the list back to it, moving the vines out of the way just as you did for the 

 scraper, and plowing one side of the list all through the patch, and then come back and plow 

 the other side in the same way, trying to make this fresh dirt meet in the middle of the list. 

 Let your hands come on behind and see that no vines are covered up, as nothing lessens the 

 size of the potatoes in the hill more than to have the vines covered with dirt.&quot; 



Harvesting. A slight frost will kill the vines of sweet potatoes. When ready for 

 harvesting, which should be before the cold is sufficient to affect the tubers, the vines 

 should be cut off quite near the ground; this may be done with a scythe or a sharp corn- 

 knife, the former being the easier method. In some sections a sharp hoe is used for this pur 

 pose, but it is very objectionable, since the tubers lie so near the surface that they will be 

 liable to be injured by being cut during the process. If a few potatoes are desired for house 

 hold purposes before the crop is fully matured, they can be obtained by carefully detaching 

 them and replacing the soil. This can be done by running the finger down beside the vine 

 until a large tuber is met, when it can be taken out, leaving the smaller ones to grow. Sweet 

 potatoes should always be dug when the soil is dry, and in a clear day. It is better to dig 

 them in the forenoon that they may have a warm sun in which to dry. After the vines have 

 been cut, they should be taken out of the way so as not to interfere with the digging, which 



