A B C OF FLORIDA TRUCKING 81 



CHAPTER XV. 



SWEET POTATOES 



I cannot say that the sweet potato originated in Florida, 

 but I will sayl this, that there is no country in the world 

 where they produce better crops or grow them with less 

 work and fertilizer than they can in our own State. The 

 Florida farmer has not given this valuable vegetable the 

 attention as a shipping crop in the past that he will in the 

 future. The Hastings farmers ship them by the car load 

 every season, and many of them have assured the writer 

 that there is no crop they can plant that pays them as well 

 as tthis one does, taking into consideration that it requires 

 less work and fertilizer than other crops do, and is raised 

 at a time when they are through with their winter and 

 spring crops. 



Plant the seed in hot beds, transplanting the draws to 

 the field when they are from tweve to fourteen inches long; 

 cutting the vines from these to plant the acreage. 



DIRECTIONS FOR PLANTING 



Plant about the first of January in Northern Florida, and 

 December ist in Southern Florida. Dig a pit 14 inches 

 deep and as large as you wish, according to the number of 

 potatoes you intend to plant. Put about six inches of fresh 

 stable fertilizer in the bottom of this pit ; cover with two 

 inches of sand ; next comes the potato seed, with a cover- 

 ing of one and a half inches of sand ; then two inches of 

 stable fertilizer on top of this. When they start to sprout 

 give them another layer of dirt one and a half or two 

 inches thick, thus completing the bed. As soon as all danger 

 of frost is over, which is about the first or middle of March 

 in the Central portion of the State, transplant these draws 

 to the field. 



