22 SWEET POTATO CULTURE. 



turc of almost any otlier crop ; it is advantageous tc 

 plant on land that was cultivated in other hoed crops 

 the previous year. A piece of land on Avhich corn 

 is apt to burn badly, is considered best for Sweet Pota- 

 toes ; "and it is observed that hot, dry summers. In which 

 other crops fail, serve to develop this esculent in size, 

 and in all its sweetness and fine flavor." 



A potato grower in Maryland advises those who would 

 grow good potatoes, at least in his latitude, not to use 

 animal manures on their crops. He says that the large 

 market growers of the Peninsula found this out long ago, 

 but most private growers continue to ruin their Sweet 

 Potatoes by using stable manure ; and that, m his ex- 

 perience, the best results have been obtained from wood- 

 ashes, or a compost of wood-ashes and marsh-turf, made 

 fine, and spread broadcast before plowing. We admit 

 that the lavish use of crude, coarse, stable manure would 

 injure the crop, or almost any other crop, but if well- 

 rotted stable, or barn -yard and stable manure, well pul- 

 verized and mixed, were applied judiciously, we appre- 

 hend good results would always follow. Indeed, this 

 practice is used extensively, and with obvious advantage, 

 in places where wood-mould and ashes cannot be obtained. 



In Nansemond County, Va., as a fertilizer for the 

 Sweet Potato, Baltimore stable manure is used to the 

 value of fifty dollars per acre. Tliis is composted with 

 an equal bulk of wood-mould in the drill. This manure 

 costs from one dollar and thirty to one dollar and fifty 

 cents per cart load of twenty bushels. 



Mr. James G. Tinsley, of Hanover, prefers, for the 

 Sweet Potato, a light, sandy soil, or any soil well mixed 

 with sand. Stable manure, he says, is the best fertilizer, 

 and after that, cow-pen manure. In his section, mould 

 from tlie woods, and pine-tags, arc used in large quanti- 

 ties, the same land being often put in potatoes. Ho con- 

 tinues, ' ' I never have been able to make good Sweet Po- 



