26 The Sweet Potato 



the tubers can be taken at any season of the year as 

 conveniently as com from the crib, farmers are rap- 

 idly giving more attention to the possibilities of the crop 

 as a source of nutritious, succulent and palatable food- 

 stuff for their live-stock. At present sweet potatoes 

 cured in the storage-house bring midwinter prices, which 

 makes them prohibitive for feeding purposes when con- 

 venient transportation facilities are available. How- 

 ever, many farmers live too far from the railroad to 

 make hauling to market of such a bulky crop profitable 

 and they will always find it a good policy to preserve 

 the crop for feeding purposes. The very interesting 

 results recently obtained by the Florida Experiment 

 Station with the feeding of sweet potato silage to dairy 

 cattle opens up a new field in the feeding of the crop. 

 Feeding to live-stock will always be a profitable way 

 of marketing the culls, the bruised and ill-shaped crop. 

 All kinds of stock relish them and because of the high 

 content of dry matter, they possess a decided advantage 

 over the other root-crops. They can be depended on 

 to contain an average of 10 per cent more dry matter 

 than the Irish potato, and more than 20 per cent more 

 than common beets, mangels, turnips, rutabagas, car- 

 rots or 'parsnips. (Table VIII.) The yield in many 

 sections is larger than that of the Irish potato and the 

 " sweets " are not so subject to disease and insect en- 

 emies in the field, nor are they so expensive to fertilize, 

 propagate and cultivate. The following table ^ gives 

 the average feeding stuff analysis of several similar 

 crops and also that of com : 



1 Bull. 146, S. C. Exp. Sta. 



