148 CROPS FOR SPECIAL FARM PRACTICES 



Sweel-potatQ. 



In the North. Dig the potatoes on a sunny day, and allow them to 

 dry thoroughly in the field. Sort out the poor ones, and handle the 

 remainder carefully. Never allow them to become chilled. Then 

 pack them in barrels in layers, in dry sand, and store in a warm cellar. 

 They are sometimes stored in finely broken charcoal and wheat-chaff. 



Sometimes they are kept in small and open crates, without packing- 

 material, the crates being stacked so as to allow thorough ventilation. 

 The Hayman or Southern Queen keep well in this way. 



A warm attic is often a good place in which to store sweet-potatoes. 

 A tight, warm room over a kitchen is particularly good. 



In the South (Berckmans). Digging the tubers should be delayed 

 until the vines have been sufficiently touched by frost to check vegeta- 

 tion. Allow the potatoes to dry off in the field, which will take but a 

 few hours. Then sort all those of eating size to be banked separately 

 from the smaller ones. The banks are prepared as follows : Make a 

 circular bed six feet in diameter, in a sheltered corner of the garden, 

 throwing up the earth about a foot high. Cover this With straw and 

 bank up the tubers in shape of a cone, using from 10 to 20 bushels to each 

 bank. A triangular pipe made of narrow planks to act as a ventilator 

 should be placed in the middle of the cone. Cover the tubers with 

 straw 6 to 10 inches thick, and bank the latter with earth, first using 

 only a small quantity, but increasing the thickness a week or ten days 

 afterwards. A board should be placed upon the top of the ventilating 

 pipe to prevent water from reaching the tubers. Several banks are 

 usually made in a row, and a rough shelter of boards built over the 

 whole. The main point to "be considered in putting up sweet potatoes 

 for winter is entire freedom from moisture and sufficient covering to 

 prevent heating. It is therefore advisable to allow the tubers to under- 

 go sweating (which invariably occurs after being put in heaps) before 

 covering them too much ; and if the temporary covering is removed for 

 a few hours, a week after being heaped, the moisture generated will be 

 removed and very little difficulty will follow from that cause. If 

 covered too thickly at once, the sweating often endangers rapid fer- 

 mentation, and loss is then certain to follow. Sand is never used here 

 in banking potatoes. Some varieties of potatoes keep much better 

 than others. The Yellow Sugar yam and the Pumpkin yam are the 



