LEADING VEGETABLE CROPS 22/ 



The sweet potato is commercially impossible in 

 the North on account of climatic conditions. It is, 

 nevertheless, grown in a small way in many home 

 gardens. The quality, however, is decidedly in- 

 ferior and the yields low. While the potato is a 

 heavy feeder and revels in rich soils, it demands a 

 sandy type that warms up and dries out rapidly 

 after heavy rains. Drainage must be practically 

 perfect, although retentive subsoils are not consid- 

 ered a disadvantage. In the South sweet potatoes 

 are frequently grown profitably on soils considered 

 too poor to satisfactorily grow cotton and tobacco. 



To prepare the land for this crop, it should be 

 plowed early, and deeply and thoroughly pul- 

 verized by the use of the disk harrows at inter- 

 vals of a week or ten days until the season of plant- 

 ing arrives. A week or two before planting, the 

 commercial fertilizer to be used should be applied 

 with a grain drill. All the way from 500 to 2,000 

 pounds per acre are applied by commercial growers, 

 perhaps i,ooo pounds being about the average. 

 Planting on ridges and on the level are both com- 

 mon. Ridging is generally considered necessary 

 where heavy rains prevail during the growing sea- 

 son and washing is likely to occur. 



Propagation is extremely important with this 

 crop and success depends largely upon the care 

 taken in this work. The crop is usually started 

 from slips or sets grown from tubers first bedded 

 in clean, sterilized sand which has been placed over 

 the manure in the ordinary hotbed. After the slips 

 have grown from the tuber to the height of six or 

 eight inches they root at their base and are 

 readily separated by means of the fingers, work- 

 ing down through the loose sand. The slips 

 should be broken directly from the tuber in order to 



