Vol. I.— No. 14. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



10J> 



SWEET POTATOES. 



The inquiry of O. W. published in our 7th 

 number, respecting the sweet potalo, lias not 

 been neglected by our correspondent H. G. 

 S. than whom no person seems more sincerely 

 •devoted to the Agricultural and Horticultural 

 interests of our country, and very few contri 

 bate moro to the distribution of useful infor- 

 mation. 



In the note received from him, Mr. S. says, 

 " after I saw the note of your correspondent 

 O.VV. I wrote to Dr. McChesney, (of Heights- 

 town, New Jersey) the geutleman from whom 

 two years ago I got my sweet potatoo seed 

 and directions. I have found the crop aprofi- 

 'able one, but have never raised more than e- 

 nough for fall use. As I am sick, and unable 

 to write, I send you Dr. McChestney's letter, 

 from which you will select the necessary in- 

 structions." 



From the letter it appears that the Doctor is 

 a seientific man, who has not omitted making 

 himself familiar with the common operations 

 of Agriculture. We therefore select the fol 

 lowing directions for our readers, as entitled 

 to the fullest confidence. 



" Planting. Place some of your finest 

 potatoes in a hot-bed, composed of equal parts 

 of loam and stable manure, made in some 

 warm place: as soon as the earth is sufficiently 

 warm they will vegetate. When the sprout* 

 are of sufficient growth, transplant them into 

 hills about three feet and a half apart for the 

 hoe—for the plough four feet. Iu wet sea- 

 sons the simple sprouts will answer every pur- 

 pose, but the safe plan will be to detach a 

 small portion of the potato with the sprout for 

 nourishment to the fibrous roots. Tim ground 

 must bo made mellow and rich, and after a 

 few days the plants should have a table spoon- 

 ful of ground plaster thrown around ea?h one 

 of them to attract moisture, nourish, and pro- 

 vent their being injured by insects. 



When the vines begin to run they must noi 

 be suffered to adhere to the earth, but careful- 

 ly wound around the original stem ; if left to 

 adhere to the earth, the potatoes will be many 

 md small. 



Preserving. As soon as the vines begin to 

 die, the sweet potatoes should be dug, and ex- 

 posed to the sun a day or two ; when perfect- 

 ly dry, they are in order for winter quarters. — 

 They should be put down in boxes, in the la- 

 mina form, having stratas of sand between 

 each, to prevent contact and exclude the air. 

 The sand used bad better be dried in the oven 

 ifier the bread has been removed. 



Sand is now universally used for their pres- 

 ervation ; formerly, buckwheat chaff, bran, cut 

 \travr, &c. were used, but always failed ; in 

 sand yon may have them for daily nse through- 

 gut the year, as fine'y flavored as when first 

 raised. 



Three kinds are cultivated vtith us, the red, 

 yellow, and white; the two former are prefer- 

 red. 



For the last eight years 1 have pdjauetl tho 

 above mode without a single fjilure, and it is 

 now generally practiced Utroirgjioiit (Ms part 



of the country. Thousands and thousands of 

 barrels are thus raised yearly, and many of our 

 farmers have lately turned their whole atten- 

 tion to them, and poor indeed the individual 

 must be, in this section of country, who has 

 not his sweetspotato patch. The price here 

 is from thirty-seven and a half to fifty cents per 

 bushel. In cooking, they should be steamed 

 and not boiled. 



Last year I had an opportunity of seeing 

 and eating the sweet potatoes of the West In- 

 dies, particularly of the Islands of St. Thomas, 

 St. John, St. James, St. Croix, &c. They 

 bear no comparison to ours, cooking watery, 

 and are almost insipid. I could find but little 

 difference between their yams and sweet pota- 

 toes." 



Git IB, OR PEACH BORER. 

 This insect in its larva; state, is as great an 

 enemy of the peach tree, as tho curculio is to 

 the plum and nectarine. The egg is deposited 

 on the bark, at or near the root, generally du- 

 ring a part of August and all of September, by 

 a winged insect not unlike the blue wasp, ex- 

 cept that it has two or three white or yellow 

 in»s around its abdomen ; the egg soon 

 hatches into a small grub, which pursues a zig^ 

 zag course in the epidermis, or outer bark, un- 

 til it reaches the softer parts under the earth, 

 when it feeds itself in the cortical layers, 

 quite to the wood, causing the trees to gum in 

 an extraordinary manner; and pursuing its de- 

 predations, until it oftentimes completely de- 

 corticates the tree, and causes its death ; after 

 a certain period they form a kind of case, or 

 shell, about them, and pass into the chrysalis 

 slate, preparatory to assuming their winged, 

 perfect, and last transformation — propagating 

 their species and dying. 



The hundred and one nostrums recommend- 

 ed to dpBtroy it, have about as much efficacy 

 and offect.as a blister '. plaster would have when 

 applied to a wooden leg. 



Let tho lovers of good peaches, and the ad. 

 mirers of healthy trees remember, that the 

 only cure is, carefully to eradicate them with 

 the knife, or wire pick — and the only preven- 

 tive jb, to fence out the parent enemy, and 

 prevent it from laying its embryo about the 

 neck or collar of the root. 



We have seen boiling water applied by pails 

 full to large trees,withoutany effect, and tobac- 

 co juice, lye, &c. with no better success; tbe 

 grub all the while lying safely ensconced, en- 

 tirely under tho coriaceous epidermis, so se- 

 curely that nothing can reach him but tho 

 knife, and to succeed with hot water, on trees 

 of any size, the bark, and a part of tbe wood 

 must be rendered scalding hot, to reach the en- 

 emy in bis concealment, which would inevit- 

 ably destroy the tree. 



Wo would propose to remove the earth en- 

 tirely from about die body of the tree to the 

 roots, even from the large laterals, and as soon 

 as it begins to expand its leaves, to examine it 

 thoroughly. 



The most certain indication of the presence 

 of the grub, is its excrements, and the redness 

 of the gum. Trees sometimes exude gum a- 

 bout the neck, without the intervention of the 

 grub, but it is aniformly nearly colorless. 



Uso e round pointed knife, or some, flatten- 

 ed iron, or even a large nail or wire pointed 

 like an oyster knife, with which you c!%fl trace 



it through all its courses without wounding 

 the bark ; after removing and destroying all 

 you can find, leave the roots in the same sit- 

 uation for two weeks or more, for another ex- 

 amination ; after which fill up al! the eaten and 

 lacerated places with grafter's wax, or clay 

 or fresh cow droppings. 

 To prevent a new impregnation, we have some 

 faith in anointing the tree about the root and 

 stem, with fcetid tanners, or train oil, or with 

 unguentum, in which considerable turpentine 

 is mixed; both these are said to have succee- 

 ded. Eut we have more confidence in raising 

 a mound of six or eight inches in height, of 

 some easy drying substances, of charcoal dust, 

 or tanners' bark, or to make a tube some two 

 or three inches larger than the tree, of some 

 kind of material that will withstand the wea- 

 ther, thick sheathing paper, oiled or painted, 

 or book binders' boards ; a thick flexible sha- 

 ving of wood, about seven inches wide by thir- 

 ty long, and coats about a quarter or half cent 

 each; with any of these form a tube around 

 the tree, and fill it with the above substances. 

 If the tree is then impregnated, it is so far 

 from the root, that the young insect will not be 

 able to reach it before winter; and anv time, 

 in one minute, you can raise the tube and ex- 

 amine fairly above ground, and destroy them ; 

 and in the same space of time replace and re- 

 fill it again. 



A coating of strong adhesive clay, or fresh 

 cow droppings, while it remains entire, would 

 have the same effect, but it is not so easily re- 

 moved and replaced. 



The depredations of the insect was the 

 cause of the destruction of all the peach trees 

 at the eastward, about 25 years ago, without 

 the cause being suspected. * 



GOOSEBERRIES. 



The common gooseberry of tho gardens, ox 

 amber gooseberry, is probablv the parent of 

 the large mammoth varieties, and when well 

 trained, and properly attended to, are a valua- 

 ble and productive article for the kitchen gar- 

 den. 



One of tho great faults and causes of fail, 

 are, is the bad shape of tbe bush, and want of 

 proper pruning. To commence fair — all old 

 bushes or suokers, procured by dividin" old 

 roots, should be rejected.as they invariably ex- 

 haust themselves, by producing a profusion of 

 sprouts, or water shoots fram the roots, whicli 

 are not only troublesome, but exhaust the fruit 

 bearing branches, and render them an unsight, 

 ly swamp of brambles. 



The true method is to cut slips from the 

 roots of old bushes of one year's growth, 

 straight and of strong growth, well ripened 1 , 

 and with a knife cut out all the eyes clean to 

 the wood, except three or f»ur at the top, ana 

 stick them firmly into the ground, during the 

 month of March or April, the sooner the better 

 — the ftx\l months are better still. 



The summer pruning i3 all-important, ag tc 

 the future shape of the tree, which as it begins 

 to develope itself,regulate by pinching ofl'sach 

 shoots as you do not wish to grow — manage in 

 snch a way as to send up three or four regular 

 arms or branches,which as tbey again send out 

 their lateral shoots, the next year will give a 

 fme shaped head, which may be clipped to c 

 fine contour and graceful sltape ; or b# prop e : 



