26 SWEET POTATO CULTURE. 



they will throw up sjirouts. When these are three oi 

 four inches above ground, if the season is good, part them 

 ofE from the potato, without disturbing it, which, if suf- 

 fered to remain, will produce more s2)routs for a suc- 

 cessive planting ; plant them immediately on ridges or in 

 hills." It was the practice of the late Joseph Cooper, of 

 New Jersey, to set three or four sprouts in a hill or place, 

 for the reason that the rampant growth of vines checked 

 and smothered the growth of weeds, causing less work 

 with the hoe. 



A moderate hot-l)ed, Cve feet square, put down early 

 m the month of April, with a half-peck of good, sound, 

 Sweet Potatoes placed therein, will produce a siiccession 

 of rooted sprouts or sli])s in May and June, which, if 

 planted and managed carefully, will yield about fifteen 

 bushels of Sweet Potatoes. 



To Eaise Early Potatoes. — A correspondent from 

 the' South gives the following mode of obtaining early 

 Sweet Potatoes, which has been practised for twenty 

 years without a failure : 



" Early in March I make a hot-bed, by setting up edge- 

 wise four planks, or boards, twelve inches wide, and driv- 

 ing down small stakes on the outside to keep them up. 

 I fill this box or frame with fresh horse-manure (if mixed 

 with litter to some extent it will answer), that has been 

 kept dry, tramping it down until it is eight inches deep 

 in the frame. I then cover the manure with rich earth, 

 two inches deep, upon which I spread potatoes or yams 

 thickly, but not touching each other, and cover them 

 with two inches of rich earth. I then raise one side of 

 my frame (the north) six inches, and cover well with 

 four-foot boards, to keep off all rain, until the slips are 

 up. I almost invariably have them up in two weeks, 

 when I take off the cover and water freely with soajj-suds 

 or water. Insert the hand, every few days, into the 



