242 THE POTATO 



soil and also by market and transportation facil- 

 ities. The larger Eastern markets are now well 

 supplied, but there are sections where the people 

 have not as yet become accustomed to the use of 

 sweet potatoes in large quantities. The field for 

 the production and use of sweet potatoes is very 

 broad, and this crop promises to become of more 

 general farm importance. 



"In view of the constantly increasing interest in 

 sweet potatoes it is the purpose of this bulletin to 

 give simple cultural directions covering their pro- 

 duction both for home use and for market, includ- 

 ing the soil and its preparation, the propagation 

 of the plants, planting, harvesting, storing, and 

 marketing, together with the uses of sweet potatoes 

 for stock feeding and for similar purposes. 



"The sweet potato is of a tropical nature, its 

 original home probably being the West Indies and 

 Central America. The true sweet potato, as we 

 have it growing in the United States, belongs to the 

 morning-glory family, its botanical name being 

 Ipomoea botatas. Throughout the Southern 

 States the sweet potatoes having moist flesh are 

 commonly known as 'yams' and those having 

 dry flesh as sweet potatoes. The name 'y^^' is 

 misleading and properly belongs to a distinct class 

 of plants that are confined almost entirely to the 

 tropics. 



"Owing to the tropical nature of the sweet 

 potato it naturally thrives best in the South Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf Coast States, but it may be grown for 

 home use as far north as southern New York and 

 westward along that latitude to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. The areas suited to commercial production 

 extend from New Jersey southward and westward 

 to Texas, and are found again in the central valleys 



I 



