SUITABLE SOILS AND MAKURES. 23 



tatoes with guano or artificial fertilizers alone ; out it is 

 necessary to supply coarser manure of some kind to mis 

 with it." 



" The value of ashes/' according to a statement of Dr. 

 Briggs, of Nansemond, "for the potato, or, indeed* for 

 almost any crop, I can testify from experience. Thirty 

 years ago my father grew Sweet Potatoes in twenty or 

 more patches, for Northern markets, and used sloop 

 loads of ashes for several years. His experience was, 

 that the ashes were the cheapest and most enduring fer- 

 tilizer for the potato crop he ever tried. The leached 

 ashes were used broadcast, about one hundred and twenty 

 bushels to the acre, and cost ten cents per bushel at the 

 Norfolk soap factory. The drills were filled with wood- 

 mould composted with farm-yard manure." A friend of 

 ours, the present season, sold nearly one thousand one 

 hundred barrels from ten acres ; they were heavily ma- 

 nured with stable manure composted with wood-mould. 



We extract from a valuable paper on the Sweet Potato, 

 furnished by one of the Farmers' Clubs of Middle Geor- 

 gia, by Capt. Pope Barrow, of Oglethrope County, the 

 following in regard to fertilizers : 



" Sandy loam is the most favorable soil for the growth 

 of this crop, in this section, and it seems to be alike suit- 

 able to all varieties. As to manures, the best results in 

 this neighborhood have been obtained by the use of 

 Superphosphate of Lime. In some cases the most aston- 

 ishing yield has been obtained by the use of one hundred 

 and fifty pounds of Sulphate of Soda, and Nitrate of 

 Soda, L e., seventy-five pounds of each, per acre. This 

 however, was applied as a top-dressing." Other farmers 

 in Georgia break the ground deep, open wide furrows, 

 put in plenty of well-rotted manure, or some good super- 

 phosphate. 



The soils used for the Sweet Potato in the alluvial dis- 

 tricts of the West and Southwest, we presume, have 



