54 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



the frosted sap will rot the stems down to the sets, and often 

 the set itself. The Triumph outyields all other potatoes 

 here, and every one should grow at least enough for his own 

 use. The only trouble with fall planting is the risk of drouth. 

 The seed should be laid away thinly in a cool place to sprout, 

 and by August will be ready if the ground is in good order. 

 They should go into the ground in August, and the man who 

 has a good windmill and well is sure of a crop. There is not 

 the slightest doubt that the Michel strawberry, treated as de- 

 scribed elsewhere, and the Triumph potato in the fall, would 

 both yield an absolutely certain and highly remunerative crop 

 to any one who will furnish a reasonable supply of water for 

 irrigation. As a preventive to scab, one ounce of corrosive 

 sublimate dissolved in about five gallons of water, and the 

 potatoes immersed for two hours, is recommended, though I 

 have never tried it. 



The culture of the sweet potato is so well known that 

 little need be said except as to fertilizing and the potato 

 worm. While ordinary soil will make a fair crop, no vege- 

 table appreciates rich ground more highly. During my last 

 year at Hitchcock I opened three experimental furrows, and 

 used equal quantities of cotton-seed hull ashes and cotton- 

 seed meal and the New Orleans ammoniated phosphate, put- 

 ting each by itself in the bottoms of the furrows, and stirring 

 well with a bull tongue, after which high ridges were bedded 

 up on them. This is all-important for the sweet potato; no 

 matter how dry the weather, ridge up high, for the feeding 

 roots run very deep. The result of the above experiment was 

 to prove that potash and phosphoric acid are the special fer- 

 tilizers for sweet potatoes, the row with the hull ashes, con- 

 taining 8 per cent, phosphoric acid and 30 per cent, potash, 

 not only producing the most but the largest tubers, though 

 both the other fertilizers gave an excellent yield. The meal 

 on new land is hard to beat. Next, as a preventive to the 

 worm that bores into the potatoes when grown, the best plan 

 is to set the vines quite deep, and after every rain sprinkle a 

 little air-slacked lime ovej each hill, immediately around the 

 stem of the vines where they enter the ground. All moths 



