I^o. 144.| 421 



it with fresh stable manures (so as to generate heat,) covered over 

 with soil one inch thick, and spread the potatoes close together 

 over the bed, and covered them with earth three inches, and left 

 them until all had sprouted from half an inch to two inches, (not 

 through the surface ) Then had the lot (two acres) spread with 

 a liberal supply of stable manure, together with six hundred 

 pounds of guano and three hundred pounds of plaster, (all the 

 manure worth about twenty dollars per acre;) turned all under 

 with two large, strong mules, to a large two horse Allen plow 

 close and deep, so much so that one of my neighbors said I had 

 ruined my land, checked it off three feet and a half each way, and 

 drew up hills with the hoe as large and high as the check would 

 allow. When all were finished, one hand, with a stick some four 

 feet long and two inches in diameter, sharpened to a blunt point, 

 proceeded to make a hole in the center of each hill about five inches 

 deep. The bed was then carefully iincovered, seed taken up and 

 dropped, one piece in each hill, and covered. They soon came 

 up, (also a good coat of grass,) when we had our furrow run each 

 way of the rows with a solid sweep, (a plow made of wide, thin 

 steel, and of triangular form, eighteen or twenty inches, thus, > ,) 

 and which are used on a common rooter stock, and set to run 

 shallow, (we use them in place of your cultivator,) which plow- 

 ing shaved off the grass about half way up the sides of the hill ; 

 the hoes following shaved down the upper half. When the grass 

 -again came up, the vines were running, and were carefully turned 

 into every alternate row, and those left bare were deeply plowed, 

 with a turning shovel running twice in each row, and throwing 

 the dirt up to the hills; vines reversed, and the other rows 

 plowed; then cross- plowed with very long, narrow rooters; the 

 <3irt then drawn up the hill with the hoe to its usual or first size, 

 leaving the crown dished like a saucer, carefully avoiding the 

 covering of any part of the vine. Should any portion be covered, 

 it takes root, and materially injures its product. 



I have raised six hundred bushels of the sweet or Spanish pota- 

 toes on an acre, of a seasonable year. 



There are several varieties of the Spanish or sweet potatoes, 

 also of yams, and two or more of the red ; the yams more produc- 



