AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 549 



In setting out plants, a boy drops a plant on each hill, taking 

 two rows at once; a man follows, and taking the plant in his 

 left hand, runs three fingers of his right hand through the top of 

 the hill into the manure; as he withdraws them he quickly 

 thrusts in the root of the plant to the bottom of the hole, and 

 then, with the thumb and finger of each hand, firmly presses 

 the earth around the plant. Plants are best set out when the 

 ground is not too wet and cold — much better before a rain than 

 after. The crop is tended with small cultivators and hand hoes. 

 One hand is allowed to attend 40,000 plants, or about eight acres. 

 The crop is generally dug with large hoes made expressly for 

 that use. When stored for spring, they are carefully placed in 

 baskets, in the field, and then emptied into boxes or barrels, and 

 sometimes covered with dry sand, or leaves, or cut straw, but 

 often without anything to keep the air from them but the lid of 

 the box, which, if tight, is mostly sufficient; but the room must 

 be kept dry and warm. If the crop brings $50 per acre it is 

 considered to pay expenses. All over that is profit; and 250 

 baskets per acre is a large yield. 



Upon the same subject I have lately had several letters from 

 O. S. Murray, of Forest Hills, Warren county, Ohio, who does 

 an extensive business in growing sweet potatoes, and sprouts for 

 those who rather buy their seed than grow it for themselves, 

 since the growing of a small quantity is considered too trouble- 

 some, but more because people have lacked the very information 

 given them in the letter just read. Mr. Mui'ray says sweet 

 potatoes have been grown to advantage in Vermont, and I know 

 they have on the shores of lake Michigan. Mr. Murray uses 

 only the Nansemond variety. He says : 



We have never used glass for these plants, preferring to give 

 them as much air as possible, making them the more hardy. 

 Put the seed in the bed about the middle of April; transplant 

 after they have been above ground two or three weeks, according 

 to the rapidity of the growth, any time before they commence 

 running. Place the potatoes in the bed so that they will scarcely 

 touch each other — a bushel on from twenty-five to thirty square 

 feet, according to size of potatoes. We keep them through the 



