46 SWEET POTATO CULTURE. 



Packing. — Sweet Potatoes arc generally shipped iu 

 tliree-bushcl barrels, usually flour barrels. The i)otatoes 

 are rubbed, but not bruised, to remove the sand or dirt. 

 They are then packed in the barrels, and the open end 

 secured by tacking over it a coarse cloth, instead of 

 putting in the head, just as grapes are sent in casks to 

 the wine cellars. 



Product per Acre. — The usual product per acre is 

 l)ut at from twenty-five to forty-five barrels, according to 

 culture, soil and climate. Forty barrels is not unusual. 

 "A friend of ours, last season, sold nearly one thousand 

 one hundred barrels from ten acres. The ground Avas 

 heavily manured with stable manure, composted with 

 wood-mould and ashes." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



STORING AND KEEPING. 



How TO Keep Sweet Potatoes. — James R. Wilson^ 

 of Bolivar County, Miss., writes: "At the South, 

 where a dry, well-constructed cellar is rarely seen, Sweet 

 Potatoes are frefpiently stored for keeping in the follow- 

 ing manner : A flue, say eight feet high, is built of lat- 

 tice, upon ground slightly elevated, where water cannot 

 settle, and around this flue forty or fifty bushels of pota- 

 toes are piled in a conical heap or shape. Over these a 

 covering of three or four inches of straw is spread, and 

 over the straw, earth. This last covering is graduated 

 to suit the weather ; at first it is light, and then deeper, 

 as the temperature falls. Rough sheds are erected over 

 Qach heap, and in cold weather the top of the flue is 



