20 SWEET POTATO CULTURE, 



Sweet Potato, and it will grow in almost any part of the 

 Tonii)erate Zone, in light soil and southern exposure, 

 with })roper care. 



In LaFourche Parish, Louisiana, Sweet Potatoes grow 

 to great perfection. As far north-west as Kent County, 

 and other parts of Michigan, the soil seems well adapted 

 to their growth, and the season sufficiently long. 



In Florida the Sweet Potato is considered one of the 

 most valuable of esculent roots. Philosophers say the 

 Banana is the greatest and cheapest food gift to man, hut 

 the Sweet Potato, as cultivated m Florida, disputes the 

 palm. It is not only wholesome and nutritious in the 

 highest degree, but as^ to the best varieties, they are de- 

 licious as footl. Their power of reproduction it is diffi- 

 cult to over-state. We never heard a good farmer at- 

 tempt to fix a limit to it, and it is well-nigh illimitable. 

 In the olden time, down in Florida, the prudent planters 

 grew prodigious quantities, and banking them up in the 

 fall, allowed the plantation hands to help themselves, ad 

 libitum, for their own use, and occasionally permitted 

 faithful Sambo to haul them to market on his own ac- 

 count, in the great plantation wagons, from which they 

 were sold at a mere nominal price per bushel, scarcely 

 realizing the cost of hauling. 



From what we have given above, some idea can be 

 formed of the adaptability and wide range of this escu- 

 lent. The general information in regard to the Sweet 

 Potato, being heretofore limited, and the ignorance in 

 regard to its pro])agation, cultnre, and keeping, have had 

 a tendency to suppress public incpiiry to considerable ex- 

 tent, hence its culture has remained in the back-ground 

 of horticultural pursuits. 



