184 KITCHEN GARDEN. 



^ 



the same ground until after a lapse of many years. It ia 

 also very advantageous to change them from one kind of 

 soil to another. The first crop should be put in as early 

 in March as the frost will permit, and the manure laid be 

 neath the seed. The late crop may be planted about the 

 middle of April or beginning of May, although fine yields 

 are often obtained from planting a month later. But there 

 is risk in planting late from the droughts of summer, and 

 from their liability of taking on a second growth in autumn, 

 should the season be wet. In some part of Britain, and 

 especially in Ireland, they sometimes transplant from one 

 field to another the stems of growing potatoes, after these 

 have grown six or eight inches long, in the same way that 

 cabbage plants are set out, and the crops are said to be 

 equally good with those where the potato sets were used. 

 But this evidently requires for its success a climate much 

 more moist than can be found in the United States, unless 

 it be in Oregon. 



SWEET POTATO (Convolvulus Batatus). The Sweet 

 Potato grows to great perfection in the Southern States, 

 and also in that portion of New Jersey and Delaware where 

 the soil is light, sandy, and warm.* The first step in their 

 culture is to provide the sprouts which are to be planted 

 out in hills. For this purpose, the whole potatoes are 

 placed five or six inches apart in hotbeds early in April, 

 and covered three or four inches deep. When they throw 

 up sprouts, which may be expected in three or four weeks 

 after planting, these, when about three or four inches above 

 the level of the bed, may be separated from the parent root 

 and planted out in hills, leaving other shoots to follow for 



* By sprouting them in a hotbed we have often raised them in great per 

 fection in the northern counties of Western New York. 



