FARMERS' REGISTER 



i97 



From the South Carolina Planter. 

 A GOOD WAY TO KKEP SWEET POTATOKS IN 

 WARM WEATHER. 



Florida, 26th August, 1*^40. 

 1 now have eweel pniaioes, (yaiiis,) of last 

 ypar's prowih, on my table every clay, allliougli 

 the new crop has heeii fit. to use iicre for more 

 than a month. This is the second year of my 

 eufcess in keeping iheni ihrouiih the sumn)er, 

 afiera ureat many previous expermients and laii- 

 nres, and others tnay like lo knmv and try the plan 

 for themselves. Here it is. 



1. I made a plentiful rrop. 



2. My potatoes were dutr and put up in mild, 

 open weather, as soon as the vines were singed 

 by frost. 



3. The eaiinjT potatoes were carefully picked 

 over, and all that were cut or bruised, were put 

 by themselves Ibr early use. 



4. They were then put up in heaps of 80 or 100 

 bushels each, on ground a little sloping. The 

 heaps were covered first with a layer of dry corn 

 fitalks, and these with a good coat of eanh, taken 

 from the margin of the heaps. By this means 

 the earth on which the heaps rested, was left 10 

 or 12 inches higher than that adjoining, besides 

 cutting trenches to carry off i he rain water. There 

 were no air-holes or vents left at the top. The 

 earth used in covering is a sandj' loam. These 

 potato banks were protected fi-oni rain by slight 

 clap-board shelters. 



5. In the spring, at the time of planting slips, 

 my eating potatoes were also taken cut of the 

 banks. The decay up to that time was about 15 

 percent. The potatoes were generally sprouted. 

 Those that v.'ere entirely sound were selected, the 

 eprouts carefully removed, the potatoes wiped 

 dry, but no! exposed to the sun, and removed to a 

 log house, on a dry plank floor, where they re- 

 mained for use, without any further attention. 

 The loss from decay since they were put in the 

 house, has been equal to about 10 per cent more. 

 I think the loss would have been less, if there had 

 been more room to spread out the [joiatoes. A 

 gill-house would be a fine place to keep them in 

 during the warm weather. For I have (bund that 

 Irish potatoes can be kept there longer and better 

 than in any oiher place I have tried. 



As to the best method of keeping sweet potatoes 

 inxvinter the following story may direct your atten- 

 tion to a quarter, from which you may obtain some 

 useful information. 



In the fall of 1833, I called at the house of J. G. 

 near the Wateree canal. He had just put up his 

 potato crop — chiefly in a house of the fbllowing 

 construction. It had a double log wall, and the 

 space between the walls (15 or 18 inches,) was 

 filled with earth. The top or loft was floored with 

 stout puncheons, and these covered over with clay 

 10 or 12 inches thick — above which there was a 

 common board roof. The ground floor was sunk 

 nbout two feet below the surface of the earth. 

 The area of the house was about 8 feet wide, 8 

 feet high, and 16 feel long, which he computed lo 

 hold 800 bushels. It was entirely filled with po- 

 tatoes. 



What struck me most, was to see the door (the 

 only opening to the house,) closed up, and all the 

 seams %n the shatter and facings, carefully chinked 

 v,p with cotton and tar — if I remember right^ Mr. 



G. gave the following explanation. — For two or 

 three years, on first housing his potatoes, he woa 

 careful to have the door kept open umd they had 

 •rone through a sweat — yet (bund that he often lost 

 a ihird by dry rot. At length lie was told that the 

 air ought to be carelully kept out until the sweat 

 was over. The truth of this was strongly confirm- 

 ed lo his mind, by the recollection that in using 

 his potatoes he lound that the farther they lay 

 from the door the sounder they had kept. He 

 added that he had preserved two crops on ihe 

 new plan, with entire success — and that after the 

 sweating stage was past, the door was often left 

 open all day, in cold weather, without any sensi- 

 ble injury to the potatoes. 



Would it not colder a public benefit, for you to 

 learn if this plan continues successful, and cive 

 your readers ihe inlormaiion'? W. 



"THE FL'LL-BRED BERKSHIRES. 



[Some of the agricultural papers have for 

 months back been full of communications and 

 essays on improved breeds of'live-stock, and espe- 

 cially of Berkc-hire hogs ; which articles are, in 

 (act, designed as advertisements, and are the most 

 "taking'" [in] kinds of advertisements (next to 

 editorial pu(I&) of the sale stock of the several 

 writers. The agricultural public, as usual, would 

 have continued to be gulled by these writers, and 

 taken all that each of them said for unquestiona- 

 ble truth, put forth purely and solely to benefit the 

 public, but Ibr the over-greediness of these gentle- 

 men, who, not content each to publish that he has 

 stock equal to the best in the world for sale, have 

 each claimed (directly or by inference) that he 

 alone has the real ''Simon Pures," and that all 

 others are no belter than bastards, if not absolute 

 counterfeits. We have been much amused with 

 the progress of the controversy, which has waxed 

 so warm as to threaten the occurrence of what 

 may be called a war of the humbugs. At the 

 distance we are from the contest and ihe actors, 

 we cannot pretend to pronounce who are not de- 

 serving such reproach as is cast by the following, 

 and by some other pieces which we have pre- 

 viously copied. But in some other cases, the 

 right to the character o\' humbugger is as manifest 

 in the communications themselves, as if the 

 writer's name and signature had been "Grant 

 Thorburn." The following seems lo be a sensible 

 piece, and its censures to be fairly and propeily 

 bestowed. But whether, after all, it is not one of 

 the same numerous batch of advertisemen's and 

 puH's disguised as communications and essays on 

 breeding, is more than we can decide. 



It is scarcely necessary for us to add, as expla- 

 nation, that we are far from being hostile, or care- 

 less in regard to the improvement of our live- 

 I stock— and that we have a high opinion of the 



