CHAPTER XVII 



VEGETABLES WITH EDIBLE TUBERS OR 

 ROOTS 



Several of the root crops, such as the potato, the 

 sweet potato, and cassava, are important food crops. 

 Others, as the radish and carrot, form agreeable adjuncts 

 to the staple foods. Their food value is mostly due to 

 starch, or, in the case of the sweet potato and beet, to 

 sugar also. 



IRISH POTATO 



The potato, or as it is often called the Irish potato, was 

 cultivated by the ancient inhabitants of South America 

 on the tropical mountains of Peru and Colombia. It 

 seems to have still some of the characteristics of a tropical 

 mountain plant in its poor endurance of frost, drought, 

 or heat. In subtropical countries where frosts occur, 

 the potato is grown only in the spring and fall. In frost- 

 less regions it may be cultivated in the cool season, but 

 in several tropical countries it will only grow well at 

 elevations of some thousands of feet. 



To raise Irish potatoes profitably in the South, it will 

 be well to watch the crop in the potato-growing sections 

 of the North. If the yield of the late crop has been good, 

 the demand for new potatoes will be small and the market 



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