SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



619 



accomplish the purpose without destroying many 

 plants. It is important to have the ridges broad, 

 so that the cultivator tooth will not tear down too 

 much of the soil. Furthermore, the weeder must 

 be used before the earth becomes too firmly com- 

 pacted by the rain, or before the weed seedlings 

 have come up. In other words, the weeds must be 

 killed while the seeds are germinating in the soil. 

 Hand-hoeing is much cheaper when it is done 

 promptly than when deferred until the weeds and 

 crab-grass form a thick mat on the uncultivated 

 strip. As a rule, two hoeings may be made cheaper 

 than one. If the first hoeing is timely, just as the 

 weeds are beginning to come up, the second one 

 will be extremely light. 



Three or four cultivations are commonly prac- 

 .ticed, although in the South sometimes two are 

 sufficient. In the second cultivation the ordinary 

 cultivator tooth is used and kept at a distance of 

 four or five inches from the plant. On the third or 

 fourth cultivation the vines should be beginning 

 to run. A vine-turning attachment, a special tooth 

 and rod, enables the cultivator to pass through, 

 lifting the vines from its path. Cultivation in Mary- 

 land ordinarily ceases early in July. The method 

 usually pursued is to keep the crop clean until the 

 vines begin to cross the rows, then lay by, when 

 the ground will be quickly covered and weeds will 

 stand a poor chance. If occasional bunches of 

 crab-grass or weeds still escape, it is necessary to 

 go over the patch and hand-pick them, as these, 

 especially crab-grass, draw heavily on the yield and 

 are a nuisance in digging. 



The vines root at the joints very commonly, 

 especially the Nansemond or the Yellow Jersey, 

 and form numerous potatoes, usually of the size of 

 one's finger or smaller. Little attention need be 

 paid to this by the commercial grower. The Big- 

 stem Jersey and many other varieties, while rooting 

 freely, deposit nutriment wholly in the hill. 



Digging, storing and marketing. 



Digging, storing and marketing the sweet-potato 

 may be considered as two types of operation — 

 digging and marketing from the field in the sum- 

 mer and fall, and storing the crop and marketing 

 in the winter. 



(1) Marketing from the field. — Harvesting the 

 crop to ship direct from the field is a comparatively 

 simple operation. It is best, even with a small 

 patch, either to plow out the crop or to dig it with 

 a machine-digger, which is essentially a modified 

 plow. If the vines are very heavy it may be nec- 

 essary, when using the common plow, to make a 

 trip on one side to cut the vines, and then follow 

 with a furrow, throwing out the potatoes. As soon 

 as the potatoes are plowed out they are lifted and 

 broken from the vines or left on the ridge to dry. 

 After they are surface-dry the pickers gather them 

 in baskets. It is customary to sort the potatoes as 

 they are picked. The picker carries two baskets, 

 — one for primes and the other for seconds. The 

 latter are the small, inferior or misshapen roots. 

 Some growers put all grades together, but this 

 usually is not considered good marketing. The 



potatoes are barreled in the field, usually in open- 

 head truck barrels, which may be regarded as the 

 commonest package for sweet -potatoes. Where 

 fancy stock is being sold to discriminating mar- 

 kets, the potatoes may be put in double-head or 

 special barrels, such as flour barrels, and the heads 

 pressed in, as is customary in barreling apples. 

 The greater piart of the crop, however, goes in 

 truck barrels covered with burlap. 



Great care should be taken not to keep the po- 

 tatoes exposed too long to a very hot sun ; when 

 digging in hot weather it is a good plan to keep 

 the potatoes covered up closely, and haul the bas- 

 kets either to the shade of the packing house or to 

 a grove of trees and pack under cover. It is nee- 



Fig. 844. Field of sweet-potatoes. Delaware. 



essary in hot weather to use ventilated barrels, 

 both in case of the open-head truck barrels and the 

 double-head barrels. Sometimes the potatoes are 

 hauled directly to the city markets in peach baskets 

 or crates. 



(2) Sweet-potato storage and winter marketing. — 

 In digging sweet-potatoes for storage, much care 

 is required not to bruise or injure them. The po- 

 tatoes are dug preferably just before the first 

 frost, when the crop is as nearly ripe as possible 

 and has nothing further to gain by remaining in 

 the field. This stage at Washington, D. C, is 

 reached about the 5th to the 10th of October. 

 Warm weather is necessary in digging. The pota- 

 toes are plowed or thrown out by the digger and 

 are allowed to surface-dry in the sun. Usually, 

 this requires one to two hours, but if the soil is 

 very dry the potatoes may be picked up into bas- 

 kets at once and will be surface-dried before they 

 reach the bins. 



