ROOT CROPS. 241 



conveniently have it bound in bundles. Above the straw place 

 a roof of light boards with slope enough to carry off the water. 

 The lower end of the boards can rest on the frame, and the up- 

 per end should be raised eighteen inches. 



Examine the bed daily, and when you find the earth heating 

 up from the bottom, uncover it in the middle of the day and 

 let the sun on it, and when all the soil is warmed so as to feel 

 comfortable to the hand, it is ready for the potatoes. Begin at 

 one end, and take off three inches of the soil on a strip a foot or 

 two in width, and put it on a wheel-barrow, to be used for cover- 

 ing the last strip at the other end. Now place your potatoes so 

 they will not touch each other on this strip from which the earth 

 has been removed, press them firmly into the soil, and then remove 

 the top three inches of earth from a similar strip, and cover 

 the potatoes already in the bed with this soil. Proceed in this 

 way across the bed. The last strip will be covered with the 

 soil in the wheel-barrow, which was taken from the bed when 

 you began. If the bed is not moist, water moderately, and at 

 Dnce replace the straw and boards. Examine the bed carefully 

 every day by thrusting the hand into it, and if it is warm it 

 will not need uncovering until the plants begin to come up. 

 With the depth of manure I recommend and four inches of good 

 earth under the potatoes, there will be little danger of the bed 

 getting too warm. If it lacks heat, uncover it in the middle of 

 the day, and let the sun shine on it from nine o'clock till three. 

 As soon as you find the plants coming through, uncover the bed 

 and water thoroughly every other day. Do not cover at all 

 again unless there is danger of frost. The more you can expose 

 the plants to harden them the better, and I think it best to 

 withhold water as they get nearly large enough to draw, as the 

 plants will, if watered too frequently, get spindled and tender. 

 The bed should be copiously watered a few hours before the 

 plants are to be drawn. 



If the directions here given are followed it is hardly possible 

 to fail of success in sprouting sweet potatoes. My failures in 

 my early experience came from several causes, among which 

 were putting the potatoes too near the manure, with but an 



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