44 SWEET POTATO CULTURE. 



ican Farmer " writes : "So many factors enter here in 

 refeiencG to the land and its adaptation to the crop, and 

 the time of the harvest and supply in the market, that 

 it is almost impossible even to approximate results. The 

 potato is edible as soon as it has any considerable size, 

 and will continue to grow until frost, often a month or 

 six weeks longer than it is permitted to do when sold in 

 August as an early market crop. 



"A grower remarked to me, some time since, that 

 when he could harvest twenty-five barrals per acre in Au- 

 gust, and get three dollars per barrel, he was satisfied it 

 paid him well. 



"Such a crop would yield more than forty barrels per 

 acre in October. The profit will depend, like other 

 crops, on tlie yield per acre and market price ; in gener- 

 al, it is always well worth the labor, and a good rent of 

 land for home consumption and home markets ; by the 

 latter, I refer to Virginia towns — Lynchburg, Danville, 

 Charlottesville, Staunton, and other interior towns 

 through which there is railroad transportation from the 

 lower counties " 



CHAPTER XIII. 



TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETING. 



The facilities for the transportation and disjiosal of 

 the Sweet Potato crop arc not less ample than those foi 

 other crops. The seaboard counties, all along the South- 

 ern coast, in many places have rivers, creeks, small bays, 

 and inlets, that admit sloops and small trading vessels 

 almost to tlie very doors of the truckers and farmers. 

 This is especially the case as regards tlie Chesapeake Bay 

 and other expanded waters, and also the numerous riv« 



