110 TUBER CROPS 



Sweet Potatoes. Strictly speaking, the sweet potato should be 

 classed as a root crop. The enlarged portions of its roots are 

 styled tuberous roots. It easily adapts itself to thin, loamy 

 soil and grows well in nearly all parts of the Southern States. The 

 long-leaf pine soils of Georgia and Florida seem especially conducive 

 to its growth and flavor. The plants are grown from slips usually 

 obtained from nurserymen or from the hothouse. These slips are 

 set out in rows three or four feet apart. Since the plants do not 

 grow well in wet or heavy soil, it is best to place them in ridges. 

 Sweet potatoes under favorable conditions yield from two hundred 

 to three hundred bushels per acre, and since they usually sell from 

 75 cents to $1.25 per bushel they make a profitable crop. Some 

 farmers regard sweet potatoes as an excellent stock food, espe- 

 cially for hogs; but the scarcity of sweet potatoes and their high 

 price practically bar their use for this purpose. The vines should 

 always be cut and the potatoes dug before a severe frost or 

 freeze comes. 



QUESTIONS 



1. What are (a) rootstocks, (6) tubers ? 



2. Discuss the cultivation of potatoes. 



3. What States seem especially adapted to potato growing ? 



4. Calculate the value of ten acres of potatoes at one hundred bushels 

 to the acre when potatoes are worth seventy-five cents per bushel. 



5. What kinds of potatoes are grown in your locality ? 



6. What commercial articles are now manufactured from potatoes ? 



7. Describe the Jerusalem artichoke. 



8. Discuss the value of the Chinese yam and the chufa. 



9. Discuss the cultivation of sweet potatoes. 



REFERENCES 



Potato Culture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 35. 



Potato Diseases and their Treatment, Farmers' Bulletin No. 91. 



Sweet Potatoes, Farmers' Bulletin No. 324. 



