52 ESCULENT BOOTS. 



entirely unprotected in the open ground ; and the table may 

 be supplied directly from the garden, whenever the frost 

 will admit of their removal. A portion of the crop should, 

 however, be taken up in autumn, and stored in the cellar, 

 like other roots, or, which is perhaps preferable, packed in 

 earth or sand. Roots remaining in the ground may be 

 drawn for use till April, or until the plants have begun to 

 send up their stalks for flowering. 



Seeds. The seeds are brownish, long, and slender, and 

 will keep four years. 



An ounce contains three thousand two hundred seeds, 

 and will sow a row eighty feet in length. 



Use. The roots are prepared in various forms; but, 

 when simply boiled in the manner of beets and carrots, the 

 flavor is sweet and delicate. The young flower-stalks, if 

 cut in the spring of the second year, and dressed like aspara- 

 gus, resemble it in taste, and make an excellent dish. 



The roots are sometimes thinly sliced, and, with the 

 addition of vinegar, salt, and pepper, served as a salad. 

 They are also recommended as being remedial or allevi- 

 ating in cases of consumptive tendency. 



THE SWEET POTATO. 



Spanish Potato. Carolina Potato. Convolvulus batatas. Ipomcua 

 batatas. 



In tropical climates, where the growth of the Sweet Po- 

 tato is natural, the plant is perennial. 



Soil, Planting, and Cultivation. In warm climates, the 

 Sweet Potato is cultivated in much the same manner as the 

 common Potato is treated at the North. It succeeds best in 

 light, warm, mellow soil, which should be deeply stirred 

 and well enriched. The slips, or sprouts, may be set on 

 ridges, four feet apart, and fifteen inches from plant to 

 plant ; or in hills four or five feet apart in each direction, 



