28 FARMER'S BOOK OF GRASSES 



fitted around the plant or cutting. The leaves if buried rot off, 

 leaving openings through which the plant dries up. The cut 

 vines yield abundantly ; but I think plants make more round 

 tubers. One accustomed to use his eyes for seeing, can distin- 

 guish at a glance as far as he can see distinctly, a pile of pota- 

 toes grown from plantfs, from another pile grown from cuttings 

 of the small, refuse tubers generally saved for planting; the for- 

 mer being nearer round, smoother, more symmetrical, larger, 

 better every way. And there is about as much difference in 

 quality as in appearance. 



Product. I think 200 bushels not a large crop per acre, and 

 400 not difficult to attain. Yet how many planters never get 

 100 bushels per acre ? The most successful potato grower I ever 

 knew thought 700 bushels per acre not a very extraordinary 

 yield. The crop is easily made, the yield very large and may 

 be fed or sold Avith immense profit. Yet how little attention does 

 it receive on the cotton plantation of to-day ! 



Saving. Drive, barely deep enough in the ground to hold, 

 three boards so as to form a sort of rough tube, pile the potatoes 

 around heaping up to a cone, cover with grass, corn stalks, or 

 leaves, (pine straw is most convenient in some respects,) then 

 with boards and the last with earth from six to twelve inches in 

 thickness, according to latitude, leaving the ventilator open, and 

 lastly a little above the top of all fix a cap to exclude rain. 



Another way is to arrange several such ventilators as de- 

 scribed above, or any other shape, a few feet apart in a row, heap 

 the potatoes along so as to form a long rick and cover as above 

 directed. Use from one end. 



Another way. Put in the ground three or four feet deep 

 four posts eight or ten inches thick and projecting as high as de- 

 sired above the ground, so arranged as to form the corners of a 

 house. Pin or spike on to these posts thick planks or slabs in- 

 side and out, and fill in between with earth ; cover with strong- 

 joists, floor and earth on that; put on a roof and the house is 

 completed and ready to receive potatoes. In this and the long 

 rick the entrance should be at the south end ; and the earthen 

 covering should be very thick at the north end. In very cold 

 weather some straw or hay may be thrown over the top of the 

 potatoes. I have been equally successful with each of these 

 methods, having never lost potatoes but two seasons when not 

 able to give my personal attention to the storing. 



I have given much space to this subject; but it is because its 

 importance demands it. We in the southern States can grow 

 no cheaper or more profitable crop than the sweet potato. 



