Proceedings of the Farmers* Club. 501 



■where you design to keep them when they are dug, without drying 

 them, with no more care in putting them away than the former, 

 and keep them uniformly at a temperature of from forty-five degrees 

 to fifty degrees, you will be as successful with these as with the others 

 above thirty-two degrees. I say forty-five degrees to fifty degrees so 

 as to prevent them going below thirty-nine degrees, thirty minutes. 

 Two points then are only to be observed, viz., dryness and the 

 temperature above given. Putting anything between, among or 

 around them may serve to keep them at the proper temperature 

 stated, but it is of no value whatever aside from that ; and if damp- 

 ness is thereby retained it will be a positive injury. To be a little 

 more explicit, for the benefit of those who may desire to keep the 

 sweet potato, I would say, dig your potatoes before the soil reaches 

 the temperature of freezing on its surface. The mere blackening of 

 the vines will not of itself destroy the potato for keeping, the cells 

 not sufiering rupture ; but it is safer to dig them before tliis occurs. 

 As you dig, place them where you intend to keep them, say in a bin 

 or box, the more the better, not to be handled till you remove them 

 in the spring, observing closely the two things above recited. After 

 the sweat takes place, say in some three or four weeks, which may be 

 readily observed, scatter a light covering of dry loam or sand, loam is 

 preferable over them, simply covering them. By following this receipt 

 you may keep the sweet potato for table use, or for seed, as well as its 

 inferior and less nourisliing edible, the Irish potato. In South Caro- 

 lina they put them up in heaps, as we do the Irish potato, in the open 

 tiir, scattering the leaves of the pine over them, and then covering 

 with about four inches in depth with their sandy loam, leaving an 

 aperture at top for the moisture to escape, closing when the sweat is 

 ofi. Many in that climate are unsuccessful, andlrom the same cause, 

 as the temperature falls below forty degrees and they neglect to close 

 the openings. It is a matter of surprise that while our grains, fruits, 

 and vegetables have been submitted to a close and exact chemical 

 analysis, the sweet potato has been omitted, at least so far as my 

 investigation has extended. It has greater fattening properties, and 

 is more nutritious than ^he Irish potato, and is greatly more pro- 

 ductive. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — There is a difference in the soil and cli- 

 mate as between South Carolina and New Jersey. The southern 

 potato is the sweetest, but they raise excellent sweet potatoes in 

 Gloucester county, New Jersey. The farmers there are fully 



