THE CULTUKB OP SWEET POTATOES, &c. 



85 



THE CULTURE OF SWEET POTATOES. 



I HAVE recently noticed frequent inquiries on the 

 culture of the Sweet Potato. Having had some lit- 

 tle experience in this branch of horticulture, I will 

 briefly state the mode and the results. 



Source of Seed. — This I always procure from the 

 city of Xew York, to which it is, 1 suppose, in all 

 oa^cs brought from further south. I sometimes send 

 lirei'lly there for it, and at other tinges procure it 

 here fiom grocers who have recently procured it for 

 retail here. Potatoes raised here are always too im 

 perfectly mature to be preserved; they perish with a 

 dry rot even when stored in small quantities, in dry 

 sand, and in a cool and airy place. 



Soil. — I have cultivated them in a light sand, a 

 sandy loam, l:ioth of moderate fertility, and in a moist 

 rich sand. I prefer the former, because it secures a 

 slower growth and results in the earlier formation of 

 tubers, and of course in a more perfect maturity than 

 either of the others. 



Mode of Growth. — The vine and leaf somewhat re- 

 semble a isean trailing over the ground. Perhaps it 

 still more resembles wild buckwheat, though its leaf 

 is larger and. a yellower green. The vines often make 

 eight feet in length in a rich and moist soil, though 

 unusually four feet is as long as is desirable. In rich 

 soil and moist weather they frequently throw down 

 roots at intervals along the vines, which produce 

 tubers at the.se points, and so fill the whole soil with 

 tubers. This, however, is not desirable, as these scat- 

 tering tnbers are usually very imperfectly ripened. 

 The tubers almost always stand up lengthwise in the 

 soil, instead of lying horizontally, as in the case of the 

 common potato. 



Preparatm y Culture in the Hot-bed. — Having pro- 

 cured your seed tubers, bury them in an ordinary hot- 

 bed, about the 20th of April, in Central New York. 

 Place them lengthwise, and nearly end to end, in rows 

 across the bed, the rows about six inches apart, cov- 

 ering them about three inches deep with soU. In 

 two or three weeks, according to the heat of the bed, 

 each tuber will throw up from fi\e to thirty sprouts 

 clcise to the side of the parent. As soon as these are 

 ilin.e or four inches high, take up the tuber carefully 

 and break them off close to the parent, so as to save 

 tli>- !^ide roots. The tubers may then be replaced for 

 th. production of a second and even a third crop of 

 ^i' 'iifs. Some prefer breaking them off in the 

 LTound, but I have always found it safe to take the 

 tul i;i's quite out of the ground for this purpose. This 

 intthod of procuring plants is practiced even in the 

 Southern States, since otherwise too many shoots 

 would be produced. With us this mode becomes 

 further indispensable as the only means of getting 

 our plants sufficiently early. 



Mode of Culture in the Field. — Plow your ground, 

 and throw it into ridges five or six feet apart. This 

 IS needful — first, because your tubers, needing to 

 spread sidewise, will form more readily than when 

 penetrating deep into the soil ; and secondly, they 

 will thus be less likely to form roots along the vine. 

 Set the plants on the ridge, about fifteen inches 

 apart, inserting them m the soil just as though they 

 were tomato or cabbage plants. Should the wean 

 ther be hot, cover the newly set plants with any large 

 leaves, as of pie-plant, balm of Gilead, &c. Hoe 



frequently until the vines cover the soil, but without 

 increasing the height of the ridge. In wet and hot 

 weather, it might be useful slightly -to lift up the 

 plants with a long, smooth pole, to prevent them 

 from rooting. 



I have not observed that the Sweet Potato is lia- 

 ble to disease, otherwise than, as a tropical plant, it 

 fears cold and rainy alternations of weather. 



Digging, Yield, Mode of Preserving, &c. — Dig 

 as soon as the vinos are killed by the frost. Spread 

 the tubers thinly on a dry, cool floor, where they may 

 often be preserved for gradual use until mid-winter. 



I am not prepared to speak very positively of the 

 yield. Undoubtedly it will usually be less than that 

 of ordinary potatoes. In the hot, moist season of 

 1851, however, the yield was very large, and the 

 whole cost of production not more than that of or- 

 dinary potatoes by the bushel. 



Quality. — Here, after all, is the failing point of 

 this crop. In a dry, warm season, when grown in 

 rather poor, sandy soil, they are often quite eatable, 

 and aro very acceptable to those not accustomed to 

 those produced at the South. Often, however, they 

 are quite watery and stringy — so much so as to be 

 utterly uneatable to all who have ever used a good 

 article. For this reason I would not advise their 

 culture as far north as Central New York ; not at 

 least until you strike the shores of the western lakes, 

 where the summer is from two to four weeks longer, 

 and allows the plant a proportionally longer period 

 to uiature its tubers. 



I have written the preceding directions, not to en- 

 courage their culture, but to aid those who are de- 

 termined to try that culture for themselves. Some of 

 my directions will seem quite unnecessary to those fa- 

 miUar with their cultm'e. — C. E. Goodrich, in Horti- 

 culturist. 



GYPSUM OK PLASTEB OF PABIS. 



Levi Baktlett, in the Granite Farmer, says : 

 Some fifteen years ago, we came into possession of 

 the farm we now occupy; being short for manure, we 

 made use of plaster on our corn, potatoes, and other 

 crops, without perceiving any very marked effects 

 from its use, and after two or three years tiials, with 

 it, we came to the conclusion that the soil of our 

 farm did not need gypsum and we gave up the use of 

 it. But some five years ago we thought there might 

 be some benefit derived from the use of plaster, when 

 daily strewn over our hovel floors, during the winter 

 season, and we procured a cask of finely ground plas- 

 ter (500 lbs.), and placed it in one of our hovels in 

 which were kept through the winter ten head of cat- 

 tle. A few quarts of plaster were daily sprinkled 

 over the floor of the hovel which was nearly water- 

 tight. The same course we have pursued every win- 

 ter since, from the belief that a portion of the vola- 

 tile carbonate of ammonia, generated by the decom- 

 position of the urine, manure, «fec., would he fired, or 

 changed to sulphate of ammonia, which is not vola- 

 tile. There seems to be a difference of opinion among 

 agricultural writers, in respect to the action of gyp- 

 sum, when mi.xed with guano, and other concentrated 

 manures. Some contending that plaster will hberate 

 the ammonia, while others say it will not. "Which 



