184 KITCHEN GARDEN. 
the same ground until after a lapse of many years. It is 
also very advantageous to change them from one kind of 
soil to another. The first crop should be put in as early 
in March as the frost will permit, and the manure laid be- 
neath the seed. The late crop may be planted about the 
middle of April or beginning of May, although fine yields 
are often obtained from planting a month later. But there 
is risk in planting late from the droughts of summer, and 
from their liability of taking on a second growth in autumn, 
should the season be wet. In some part of Britain, and 
especially in Ireland, they sometimes transplant from one 
field to another the stems of growing potatoes, after these 
have grown six or eight inches long, in the same way that 
cabbage plants are set out, and the crops are said to be 
equally good with those where the potato sets were used. 
But this evidently requires for its success a climate much 
more moist than can be found in the United States, unless 
it be in Oregon. 
Sweer Potato (Convolvulus Batatus).—The Sweet 
Potato grows to great perfection in the Southern States, 
and also in that portion of New Jersey and Delaware where 
the soil is light, sandy,and warm.* The first step in their 
culture is to provide the sprouts which are to be planted 
out in hills) For this purpose, the whole potatoes are 
placed five or six inches apart in hotbeds early in April, 
and covered three or four inches deep. When they throw 
up sprouts, which may be expected in three or four weeks 
after planting, these, when about three or four inches above 
the level of the bed, may be separated from the parent root 
and planted out in hills, leaving other shoots to follow for 
* By sprouting them in a hotbed we have ofte» raised them in great per- 
fection in the northern counties of Western New York. 
