128 
CULTIVATION OF THE SWEET POTATO. 
ed an extraordinary crop. This would feed a 
man six pounds a-day for 3,557 days, or nine 
and two-thirds years ! 
To vary the diet, we will occasionally give 
rice. This has been grown at the rate of ninety- 
three bushels to the acre over an entire field. 
This, at 45 lbs. to the bushel, would be 4,185 lbs. ; 
or, at 28 lbs. to the bushel, when hulled, 2,604 
lbs., which, at two pounds a-day would feed a 
man 1,302 days, or more than three and a half 
years ! 
Upon reflection, it is not very wonderful that 
so many non-producers are able to find food, 
when we see how many mouths one laborer 
can fill. 
CULTIVATION" OF THE SWEET POTATO. 
Having seen an article from the transactions 
of the New-York State Agricultural Society, for 
1848, written by S. S. Ridder of Alabama, on 
the cultivation of the sweet potato and which, in 
Sweet Potato. — Fig. 43. 
many particulars, is defective or not fully ex- 
planatory, I will give you our manner of cul- 
tivating that valuable rOot in this section, which 
is done on a pretty large scale, for the Philadel- 
phia and New-York markets, and by others only 
for family use. 
As soon as the frost is well out of the ground, 
which is generally from the middle to the last 
of April, in this latitude, make a hot bed by tak- 
ing some rough boards, setting them on edge in 
any convenient place, where the bed will have 
the rays of the sun, and out the way of pigs or 
poultry, and form a box 4 feet wide and length 
according to quantity of the tubers, or sets, to be 
put down, and 15 inches deep. Put fresh ma- 
nure from the horse stable, not too coarse nor 
too fine; tread it down until it is about 12 inches 
deep and then throw on a few buckets of water 
so as to make it damp (not wet). Now put on 
a layer of sandy loam one and a half inches 
deep ; place your potatoes on promiscuously 
about one inch apart and three inches from the 
boards which form the box ; cover the potatoes 
with the same loam as before, to the depth of 
full 2 inches. Do not wet the loam any more 
than what is natural to it; cover the bed all 
over with hay or fine straw to the depth of 6 
inches, when pressed down, which do by putting 
on some loose boards so as particularly to shed 
heavy rain. 
Now examine your bed every day, by uncov- 
ering a small place near the centre, and thrust 
in your hand, to feel if it is becoming too hot 
If too warm, uncover for a day or so, and be 
sure to cover up the sets at night, and keep them 
covered until some of the sprouts make their 
appearance above the surface, which they will 
generally do in from eight to fifteen days ; then 
take off the cover and put it on no more, unless 
it should turn cool, and bid fair for frost. 
The potatoes should not be taken out of the 
bin or hole where they have been kept through 
the winter, until the hot bed is ready to receive 
them; for they will injure by wilting or drying. 
Be sure to water the hot bed after the plants get 
to growing. . If the weather should prove dry, 
it will generally yield three or four crops of 
plants. So much for the hot bed. 
Now choose the sandiest piece of land on the 
farm. If it is poor, so much the better, for grass 
and weeds will not spring up and choke the 
crop as it will on land already rich. Give it a 
good coat of well-rotted manure, plow it in flat 
and tolerably deep ; let it lay a week or so, and 
then run a harrow over to pulverise and keep 
the soil clean. When your plants are nearly 
large enough to transplant, ridge up your land 
with a one-horse plow, about 3 feet apart ; rake 
off the top of the ridge even and flat. Let it re- 
main until a shower of rain ; or, if the weather 
should be dry, plant out just before night, and 
water well. The plants are old enough for 
planting out when the leaves get their natural 
size, and will bear pulling. 
In taking up the young plants, place the left 
hand on the potato, when you go to draw them 
from the bed, and pull up with the right. Plant 
them about 12 inches apart on the ridge. Do 
not make a small hole with a stick, as is usually 
the case to insert the plant, but " grabble" a 
hole with the hand, so that the roots will lay 
straight. 
Some farmers prefer planting in hills, which 
can be easily done with a weeding hoe, after the 
ridges are made as directed above; put two 
plants in a hill. Weed or dress the crop with 
the hoe, as soon as any grass makes its appear- 
ance ; then plant between the ridges and earth 
up with the hoe, when the vines get to running 
pretty thick over the ground ; keep the weeds 
out by pulling by hand or otherwise, until the 
vines cover the ground. When they are out of 
danger and need no more tilling, pull the vines 
loose from the ground, if they should take root 
by being covered up, or by heavy rains. Set 
out until about the 25th of June ; they will gen- 
erally mature in any latitude where the pump- 
kin will thrive. 
To keep sweet potatoes through the winter, 
brick up a bin or hole under the cook house 
