298 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



June, 1907 



Sugary Southern Sweet Potatoes 

 in the North 



[Note. — Twenty-five dollars will be paid for the best 

 article by a Northern cmateur who will grow this style of 

 sweet potato in 1907 with entire satisfaction and success. 

 Six photographs desired.] 



EVERYBODY knows that Southerners 

 scorn the dry, starchy potatoes that 

 Northerners eat, because they are deficient 

 in sweetness. One reason why Northerners 

 cannot get the soft, sugary varieties of the 

 South is that they do not ship well or keep 

 well. Therefore, this type should be raised 

 in Northern gardens. We are confident 

 that it can be done with satisfaction by 

 amateurs as far north as Boston, Toronto, 

 Minneapolis, Omaha and Seattle. Of course, 

 the crop will not be heavy, but sweet-potato 

 pie and fried sugary potatoes are far ahead 

 of mere boiled sweet potatoes. Moreover, 

 the sugary type is adapted for baking, while 

 the mealy type is not. Anyone can get a 

 Farmers' Bulletin on sweet potato culture 

 from the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, D. C. The Readers' 

 Service Department of The Garden Mag- 

 azine will inform anyone who is interested 

 where plants may be obtained. It is neces- 

 sary to act at once. Only the varieties recom- 

 mended by Professor Starnes are to be used. 

 Nansemond will not do. The following are 

 the best replies received to several letters of 

 inquiry. 



A SOUTHERN PROFESSOR'S ADVICE 



The difference between the starchy sweet 

 potato and the sugary Southern type is due 

 to variety and not to soil or section. Any 

 variety of the Jersey strain — as Big Stem 

 Jersey, Yellow Jersey, Red Jersey or White 

 Nansemond — removed from the shores of 

 Delaware Bay to South Georgia, will repro- 

 duce itself with unimpaired starch content 

 and with but slightly increased sugar content. 

 Conversely, the Georgia removed from 

 Savannah to Long Island will lose but little, 

 if any, of its sugar content and add nothing 

 to its starch, while the characteristic flavor 

 of either will not be perceptibly changed. 

 The effect of soil or even climate — within 

 reasonable limits — will be found but slight, 

 at first. In course of time it may induce 

 some modification. This will be more 

 readily understood when it is realized that 

 new varieties of the sweet potato are the 

 result almost entirely of "bud variation." 



The reason sugary potatoes are not grown 

 as far north as San Francisco, Chicago or 

 even Boston is ethnological, and neither 

 botanical nor climatic. The market gardener 



will not plant them because the public doesn't 

 want them and therefore will not buy them. 

 Nor will the housekeeper of Savannah or 

 Mobile or New Orleans buy the starchy 

 Nansemond strains — what Henry Grady 

 used to term "Jersey punk." 



For over two centuries the Southern kitchen 

 (of the higher type) has been dominated by 

 the African — by nature one of the best cooks 

 the world has ever produced. What "old 

 mauma" cooked "went." But "old 

 mauma's" race has notoriously a "sweet 

 tooth" that would shame a plantigrade, and 

 it would have been more than miraculous 

 if she had failed — in two centuries — to impose 

 her own saccharine tastes and her wonderful 

 sugary confections upon the generations to 

 which she ministered — God bless her dear 

 old memory! For "she caught 'em young." 



Additionally, for climatic reasons it was 

 easier at first to grow Irish potatoes at the 

 North than sweet potatoes, and easier to 

 grow sweet potatoes at the South than Irish 

 potatoes. Each section followed naturally 

 the line of least resistance. The Northerner 

 therefore inherited, as time passed, a taste 

 or predisposition for the dry, mealy, starchy 

 characteristics to which he was accustomed 

 in the Irish potato. This on occasion he 

 extended to the sweet potato also — and so 

 were differentiated and finally crystallized 

 the dietetic preference and demand of the 

 two sections. 



Yet the taste for the sugary type of sweet 

 potato at the South is not universal. Many, 

 of uninterrupted heredity and training, prefer 

 the mealy type — especially with butter or 

 milk — while the old "blue-fleshed," "red- 

 skinned," Black Spanish of our boyhood days 

 is something to be now realized only in our 

 dreams! 



Nor are all Southern potatoes sugary. 

 There are two main types — the saccharine 

 and turpentine. Of the saccharine type, the 

 best in quality, but not usually productive, 

 there are the three main strains: Georgia, 

 pumpkin and vineless (or bunch). They 

 were originally varieties, but differentiation 

 has slowly crept in to such an extent that 

 they must now be termed "strains." The 

 Sugar Yam and Yellow Yam are but 

 offshoots of the Georgia. Indeed, with- 

 out inaccuracy, they may still be considered 

 synonyms. 



The vineless or bunch is comparatively 

 a newcomer — unquestionably an offshoot 

 or "bud variation," originally, from Georgia. 

 At first strictly a variety, it has differentiated 

 into a "strain" and there are scores of [vine- 

 less over the South — some good, some bad 

 and some indifferent. Even pumpkin — 

 once so distinct — with its deep-colored flesh 

 — has widely differentiated and there may 

 be now had the Vineless Pumpkin and the 

 Split-leafed (lobed) Pumpkin, in addition 

 to the original form with "shouldered" leaf. 



The other principal Southern type is a 

 heavy producer of large coarse tubers used 

 chiefly for stock feeding and known as the 

 turpentine strain. To it belong Southern 

 Queen, St. Domingo and the like. It exudes 

 heavily a resinous sap which gives the strain 

 its name, and is not valued except for its 

 productiveness. There are other minor 



types as the Spanish strain, to which belong; 

 the old Black Spanish and Orleans Red or 

 Nigger Killer — but this is not intended to be 

 a technical paper, and the enumeration 

 already made covers the best market types. 

 Neither Barbadoes nor Hayman are of good 

 quality, though the latter produces large 

 crops. 



Tennessee Yam is a memory. For alL 

 practical purposes it is obsolete. The orig- 

 inal Tennessee had a "shouldered" not a- 

 " split" leaf. Later a type with deeply 

 lobed leaves appeared under the same 

 name, and the original type, having mean- 

 while sadly deteriorated, dropped out of 

 sight. 



There is not the least reason in the world 

 why the sugary type of sweet potato may not 

 be grown by amateurs in the North, partic- 

 ularly New Jersey or Long Island. There are 

 no climatic or horticultural obstacles in the 

 way . As the hair-tonic man says: "Try- 

 it and be convinced." But you must have 

 a sandy soil and plenty of hot sunshine. 



Georgia. Hugh N. Starnes. 



a northerner's experience 



Have you not stated what is contrary to- 

 existing facts? I have lived in the Soutb. 

 and also here in the North; I have eaten 

 sweet potatoes brought from the South and 

 stored at home during the fall and winter. 

 I have found them to be very dry and sweet 

 but not as high in quality as most of those 

 raised farther North! 



I have grown sweet potatoes that are fully 

 as sweet as the Southern ones but more 

 watery and in my opinion more palatable 

 and nutritious than Southern grown potatoes 

 of the same variety. The great essential 

 requirement is a sandy soil. If grown in 

 heavy loam the potatoes are destitute of 

 sweetness. 



They may be grown as far north as Boston 

 but must be planted the last of May. I have 

 grown large sized tubers of Big Stem, Yellow 

 and Red Nansemonds and Harrison Seedling; 

 as well as the Bush Vineless, but my soil is 

 just suited for them. Hayman and Vineless 

 are both good but the season is not quite 

 long enough to grow them to full size. Pear- 

 son and Harrison's Seedling improve in 

 flavor as the season advances and the latter 

 (a white variety) is not good until late. It 

 is excellent for baking. 



Long Island, N. Y. E. Stanley Brown. 



Are Your Larkspurs Diseased ? 



If your larkspurs are diseased, please 

 send specimens with your name and address 

 to Dr. Erwin T. Smith, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, who wants to know how 

 widely this mysterious disease has spread. 

 He is trying to find a remedy for it. Mean- 

 while he says: "If I had plants very badly 

 attacked by it, I should remove and destroy 

 them, and the remainder I should spray 

 with copper fungicides, hoping that this 

 might prove a remedy." 



The disease attacks the growing point 

 just at the time that the flower should be 

 produced, completely crippling it and causing, 

 black patches. 



