66 SWEET POTATO CULTURE. 



if the season (after tlicy have a good start) be ever so hot 

 and dry, they will continue to grow as though it were ever 

 so seasonable. The main point is to keep down the weeds 

 and grass. If these get a start much labor, especially in 

 hand weeding, will be necessary, and they are very impa- 

 tient of disturbance in the hill or ridge, incident to close 

 or careless weeding. 



When the vines begin to run and take root in the balks 

 or along the sides of the hills or ridges, they should be 

 loosened from the soil with the hand or a pronged weed- 

 ing hoe. This is also necessary in cultivation ; and the 

 pronged hoe is used to pull them out of the way of the 

 plow. In harvesting, a two-horse plow is used to plow 

 them out, the vines being cut off with a sharp weeding 

 hoe or other implement. Then the roots are easily 

 brought to the surface Avitli the pronged hoe. Care 

 should be taken that they are not bruised or broken. 

 They are then carefully taken up, the soil shaken out, 

 sorted, and placed in hampers or baskets. Boxes are 

 best, as they get bruised in baskets. A spring wagon 

 takes them to the place of storage or to market. 



The special advantage of raising this crop is, that the 

 dry, hot seasons (that with us of the South seem to be 

 on the increase), are a requisite with the sweet potato. 

 The dryer the season the larger and better the potato. 



Let every farmer in Southern potato regions have his 

 hot-bed ready by the first of April — north of Virginia it 

 should be later — so as to be ready to plant by the lOth or 

 15th of May. What better or more desirable crop can he 

 raise for home use, or even for home or distant markets? 



Hanover Notes on Cultivation. — We introduce 

 here some excellent additional remarks on cultivation 

 from the pen of Mr. J. W. Tinsley, an experienced sweet 

 potato raiser from that celebrated potato region, Hanover 

 County, Virginia : 



** We usually try to set all we can in the month of 



