190 KITCHEN GARDEN. 



thej are worked by the cultivator and plpugh. The sets 

 for planting should be cut at least a week before they 

 are to go in the ground, and it is a good plan to roll 

 them in ground plaster of Paris or old-slaked lime. 



The culture of the potato should not be repeated upon 

 the same ground until after a lapse of many years. It 

 is also very advantageous to change them from one kind 

 of soil to another. The first crop should be put in as 

 early in March as the frost will permit, and the manure 

 laid beneath the seed. The late crop may be planted 

 about the middle of April or beginning of May, although 

 fine yields are often obtained from planting a month 

 later. But there is risk in planting late from the droughts 

 of summer, and from their liability of taking on a second 

 growth in autumn, should the season be wet. In some 

 parts of Britain,and especially in Ireland, they sometimes 

 transplant from one field to another the stems of grow- 

 ing potatoes, after these have grown six or eight inches 

 long, in the same way that cabbage plants are set out, 

 and the crops are said to be equally good with those 

 where the potato sets were used. .But this evidently re- 

 quires for its success a climate much more moist than 

 can be found in the United States, unless it be in 

 Oregon. 



Sweet Potato {Convolvulus Batatus). — The Sweet 

 Potato grows to great perfection in the Southern States-, 

 and also in that portion of New Jersey and Delaware 

 where the soil is light, sandj, and warm. • The first step 

 in their culture is to pi-ovide the sprouts which are to be 

 planted out in hills. For this purpose, the whole pota- 

 toes are placed five or six inches apart in hotbeds early 

 in April, and covered three or four inches deep. When 



