SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



615 



intensive money crop, it is often possible to select 

 the most favorable time for plowing for this crop. 

 When the soil reaches a certain condition, neither 

 too wet nor too dry, it crumbles nicely before the 

 plow and harrows down into a fine garden condition. 

 Since the sweet-potato plants have to be trans- 

 planted into the soil, specially fine preparation is 

 required. It is seldom safe to postpone the harrow- 

 ing of sweet-potato land. A spike-tooth harrow 

 should be run over the land the same day that it is 

 plowed, thoroughly pulverizing the surface. In 

 certain very light sandy soil best adapted to sweet- 

 potatoes, the preparation is so simple and easy that 

 no special care is required. But many sandy soils 

 have enough clay in them to bake and form clods, 

 and hence need careful attention. 



After the field is plowed and harrowed, the fertil- 

 izer can be drilled in, or sown broadcast if it is 

 desired to make a large application. The writer 

 uses 1,200 pounds per acre, 800 pounds of which is 

 drilled in after the harrowing. This is done prefer- 

 ably at least two weeks before planting, so that, 

 if possible, one or two rains will intervene, thor- 

 oughly dissolving and diffusing the caustic parts of 

 the fertilizer. If there is a rain sufficient to wet 

 down the plowed land, and this is particularly desir- 

 able at this time, as soon as the soil comes into 

 condition it is thoroughly and deeply harrowed with 

 a disk-harrow or one of the cutaway or spading 

 harrows. The disk is then followed either at once 

 or in a short time by the acme, spike-tooth or some 

 surface pulverizing harrow. Land in this condition, 

 finely pulverized and full of moisture, is ready to 

 resist any reasonable drought, and the plants can 

 be set out in all but the most intensely dry weather. 

 A week or two before planting time, furrows three 

 to five inches deep should be run with a one-horse 

 plow. The distance may be three feet six inches 

 to four feet, or even slightly more. In these fur- 

 rows, 400 pounds per acre of commercial fertilizer 

 is applied. This can be put in most economically 

 with one of the little distributers of the wheel- 

 barrow type. The manure can then be distributed 

 in the bottom of the furrow. The quantity of 

 manure naturally varies ; the average would be a 

 strip four inches wide and one inch deep. If the 

 manure is light and strawy, of course the depth 

 would be greater. 



In applying such a quantity of manure an average 

 forkful reaches three or four feet in the drill, and 

 the amount used per acre is about eight tons. The 

 manure can be applied previous to plowing. It may 

 be spread on crimson clover sod in the fall, with 

 excellent results, or it may be distributed on the 

 ground in the winter. Care should be taken, how- 

 ever, not to haul heavy loads over the land when it 

 is very wet. Most sweet-potato-growers prefer to 

 put the manure in the furrow under the crop. The 

 greater economy of fall and winter distribution in 

 labor and teams is an argument for the latter method. 

 If possible, the drills should be opened, the fertilizer 

 and manure applied and then a ridge bedded over the 

 fertilizers by a one-horse plow the same day, unless 

 the soil is very moist. In dry weather it is also 

 necessary to bed up the ridges several days before 



planting, while in a tolerably moist time planting 

 can proceed at once after bedding. 



Starting the plants (Pigs. 839-841).— While the 

 preparation of the soil is in progress, the propaga- 

 tion of the plants should be proceeding. Sweet- 

 potato plants can be purchased in quantity, and 

 some growers prefer to buy them from men who 

 make a business of growing the plants. Formerly, 

 in the southern states parts of the sweet-potato 

 roots were ,sometimes cut and planted after the 

 method commonly used for Irish potatoes. As a 

 rule, however, plants are grown in the hotbed, 

 pulled from the potatoes when they are the proper 

 size and transplanted into the field. The propagation 

 of these plants in the hotbed becomes one of the 

 important features of the growing of this crop. 



Fig. 839. Bedding sweet - potatoes on a large fire hotbed, 

 twenty feet in width. Sweet-potatoes rest on four inches 

 o£ soil and are covered two inches deep. 



Ordinarily, the small potatoes, three-fourths inch 

 to about one and three-fourths inches in diameter, 

 are stored separately and are used as seed-roots. 

 Generally the seed-roots are saved from the ordinary 

 crop and more or less selection is practiced by choos- 

 ing the short, smooth shapely roots, or, at any rate, 

 by rejecting the misshapen, ribbed or crooked pota- 

 toes. " Slip-seed " is generally preferred to " seed- 

 roots '' saved from the crop. This is produced by tak- 

 ing cuttings from young vines, varying in length 

 from eight to ten inches up to twenty inches, and 

 thus avoiding fungous diseases which are carried 

 over on the roots. "Slip-seed" is also supposed to be 

 more vigorous and productive. Usually " slip-seed " 

 may bring ijearly double the price of ordinary "seed- 

 roots." This is particularly true in New Jersey, 

 Maryland and elsewhere, where propagation from 

 cuttings is not so easy as it is further south where 

 there is a longer season. In the South, it is not 

 unusual for a man who is to plant ten acres of 

 sweet -potatoes to bed a barrel or two of roots, 

 plant a couple of acres and then make cuttings for 

 the remainder of the crop. These cuttings may 

 consist of two or three joints of the vine with a 

 single leaf on the upper joint, or, possibly, of a 

 longer piece. When short cuttings are used they 

 are set out just like plants, leaving the single leaf 

 and bud above ground. When longer cuttings^ a 

 foot or two in length, are used, the cutting ia 

 usually planted about half its length in the ground. 

 Some growers use a long cutting and loop it, put- 

 ting both ends in the ground. These cuttings can 



