58 How THE FARM PAYS. 



tubers. To prevent its further spread by infection of the ground, as 

 far as we can we should gather the vines and leaves when the crop 

 is dug and burn them. Also cook and feed the affected tubers to 

 pigs and preserve only sound ones for next year's seed. This will 

 help us as far, probably, as we have learned how to go. I have heard 

 that it prevents the spread of the disease in the stored potatoes to 

 sprinkle them freely and thoroughly with air-slaked lime, but I have 

 no personal experience of that. From my experience with the fumes 

 of sulphur in destroying mildew and all other parasitic life, I am of 

 opinion that sulphur burned in places where potatoes are kept would 

 arrest the spread of disease. 



The simplest method of applying the sulphur fumes is to sprinkle 

 flowers of sulphur on sheets of paper, roll these up and burn them so 

 as to keep a continuous supply of the fumes to saturate the air of 

 the cellar for four or five days. This is a cheap and simple applica- 

 tion which I think would be effective. It would be useless to apply 

 sulphur in any other way, as it must be volatilized by heat. 



SWEET POTATOES. 



Although sweet potatoes can hardly be called a crop for the farm 

 in the neighborhood of New York, yet in the Southern States it is one 

 of the leading farm products, and it is even grown successfully as far 

 north as New Jersey. The plants are raised in hot-beds from so-called 

 "seed" sweet potatoes, which are usually of small size, but must be 

 sound. These are placed in hot-beds any time during the month of 

 April. After the hot-bed has been made in the usual way that is, 

 one and one-half or two feet deep of horse manure a layer of sand or 

 sandy loam is thrown over it to the depth of four or five inches and 

 the seed potatoes placed on this close together. As soon as the shoots 

 begin to appear, a layer of an inch of sand is thrown over them. The 

 shoots quickly sprout through the sand, and by the middle or end of 

 May, in the latitude of New Jersey, they are in condition to be set 

 out in the open ground. In Southern New Jersey and further south, 

 these beds are not covered with glass, but with a light covering of 

 straw or coarse hay, to retain the warmth. This is removed when the 

 plants appear. In sections of the country where sweet potatoes are 

 grown even to a small extent, there are generally men who make a- 

 business of growing the plants, which are often to be bought as low as 

 one dollar per 1,000, and it will be found better for the grower to 

 purchase than to raise them himself, if he has not the proper con- 

 venience of sashes and hot-beds. The plants are set out in rows three 



