June. 1889. 
AaKAAAAAA/v\A>XaAA7v?VA/\J\A/V». 
ORGHRRD«l GARDEN 
^ WWVWWVWAAW WWWWVWV 'I'/WV 
127 
hilling. By the time the cultivation was 
complete the plants occupied the centre of 
a wide bed slightly elevated above the 
space between the rows. The old Dutch- 
man’s vines never died off suddenly in mid- 
summer as ours sometimes do but kept 
green and flourishing until killed by frost, 
a result which he claimed as due to the 
deep working of the rows, drawing the 
moisture from the shallow, plowed spaces 
between. 
Sweet Potatoes. 
Sweet potatoes will grow and make fair 
looking tubers in nearly all parts of the 
United States, but we who live South of the 
Potomac could hardly be persuaded to be- 
lieve that the potatoes grown northward 
are fit to eat when compared with ours, and 
the dwellers in the sandy lands of lower 
Virginia turn up their noses at the product 
of our mountain clay lands. But a great 
reason for inferiority in certain localities is 
the effort to grow varieties unsuited to 
them. In the sandy lands of New Jersey 
the Yellow Nansemond makes a very pretty 
looking tuber and is probably profitable 
for market there, and is also suited to our 
lands, while in lower Virginia the large 
yellow known as “Red Nose” is far better 
in looks and quality too but will do notbing 
at all here. The hardiest of all sweet pota- 
toes, and the variety most likely to succeed 
at the North, and in lands not usually good 
for this crop, is the short chunky yam, 
known in lower Virginia as the Hayman 
and which was sent out by a New York 
seedsman a number of years ago as the 
“Southern Queen.” This is the earliest 
sweet potato we know. It is a good crop- 
per, and the best keeper of any. It is sweet 
and good on soils and in localities where the 
Yellow Nansemond and similar sorts are 
almost tasteless. The Nansemond and 
Red Nose are only good when perfectly dry 
and mealy which they never are in a clay 
soil. The Hayman on the contrary is never 
mealy and when at its best in mid winter, 
is, when baked with the skin on (the only 
way any sweet potato should be cooked), as 
soft as custard and as sweet too. There is a 
similar variety, which is preferred by some, 
the skin of which is a bright red. Many 
years ago. when traveling in Texas we ate 
some potatoes, about the shape of the Nanse- 
mond, the skin of which was deep red and 
the flesh pure white and very dry, sweet 
and mealy. I have often tried to get it 
for the purpose of testing in a more northern 
locality. This is a work which our Exper- 
iment Stations should undertake, the ex- 
change of local varieties of vegetables for 
testing in other localities. There are many 
sorts of sweet potatoes grown in the South, 
some of which might prove even better 
here and northward than the sorts we now 
have. 
It is well known that the sweet potato 
prefers a dry, light soil, but it will accom- 
modate itself to almost any soil. At the 
North it is the practice to manure liberally 
for this crop, but here and southward such a 
practice would lead to an enormous growth 
of vine and a diminished crop. The leaves 
and rakings of a pine woods seems to be a 
special manure for this crop, and on the 
Eastern Shore of Virginia where sweet po- 
tatoes are the leading truck crop this ma- 
terial is almost the sole fertilizer used, and 
large crops are grown on very thin soil 
with a heavy coat of pine “shutters.” Aside 
from any fertilizing matter in the pine 
leaves there is no doubt that their mechan- 
ical influence in keeping the soil open and 
preventing baking has a great deal to do 
with it. In any part of the country where 
it is necessary to use a heavy soil for this 
crop I have no doubt that a heavy coat of 
half decayed leaves of any kind would be 
much better than barnyard manure. In 
these heavy soils there is no doubt but that 
larger crops can be grown bj r planting the 
slips in high round hills than by planting 
on ridges, but these hills necessitate hand 
cultivation, while the ridges admit of the 
greater part of the work being done by 
horse power. The yellow potatoes grown 
so dry and sweet in lower Virginia should 
never be planted in northern localities nor 
on heavy soil for in such places they are 
sure to be inferior. But the Hayman Yam 
or Southern Queen will always do well in 
such places and it requires a much shorter 
season than the large Virginia Yellow. 
Here we make our hot beds for sprouting 
potatoes about April 1st but at the North a 
month later is best, and the Hayman can 
be set in the open ground the middle of 
June or later here and mature a crop. I 
once planted in Northern Maryland a crop 
of Hayman’s in July, on a piece of land 
from which a crop of potato onions had 
been shipped, and made a good crop. Even 
this far south (Central Virginia) there is 
little gained in setting the plants before the 
last of May except in the warm soils of the 
tidewater section, where the chief object is 
the production of early crops for the north- 
ern market. Those who find sweet pota- 
toes hard to keep in winter should try dry- 
ing them. We slice and dry them either in 
a portable evaporator or an ordinary cook- 
ing range. Nothing dries more quickly and 
I have often had them dry on an American 
Dryer in half an hour. For the making of 
pies and sweet potato bread these dried 
slices are fully equal to the fresh potatoes, 
and when steamed, mashed into cakes and 
browned in an oven, they taste as well as 
the fresh article. 
If stored in small bulks, in peach crates 
for instance, and piled so as to have venti 
lation in a dark room in which the temper- 
ature is never allowed to go below 60 deg. 
Farenlieit, sweet potatoes will keep well, 
provided they are dug when the ground is 
dry and before hard frost, and have not 
been bruised in handling. With a thick 
covering of “pine shutters” and a thicker 
coat of earth over all, I have kept them p r- 
fectly in conical mounds out of doors; but 
of course where frost penetrates deeply this 
cannot be done. — W. F. Massey. 
When you are prompted to disown companionship 
you’re much in doubt of, remember one is often 
known by company which one keeps— out of. 
When buoyancy eaen step attends, and sound diges- 
tion never fails you, you do not have to tell your 
friends that no consuming trouble ails you. 
That’s gospel and here’s the way to keep in time 
with it: 
Drs. Starkey A Paten: 
I feel constrained in the interest of the sick and af- 
flicted to make known my experience with your Com- 
pound Oxygen Treatment. 
Three years ago 1 thought myself in the first stages 
of consumption. I suffered every day from hemor- 
rhages of the lungs until I was run down completely, 
having night-sweats, and almost prostrate. 
After trying every known remedy and some of our 
most eminent physicians without any relief, I com- 
menced taking your Compound Oxygen Treatment, 
and it stopped the bleeding at once and gave me 
strength and new life, and to-day I fear no consump- 
tion whatever. 
Hoping the few words I send you will help some 
poor mortals to live for their loved ones as it has help- 
ed me, I remain. Yours truly, 
Mrs. W. L. Pettit. 
Fort Wayne, Ind., Feb. 12, 1889. 
Drs. Starkey & Paten: 
I have the greatest confidence in your Compound 
Oxygen Treatment for lung troubles. I feel sure I 
would have died four years ago if I had not known of 
it. I believe it to be far superior to anything in exist- 
ence for the lungs. 
The strongest terms I could express does not tell 
half the good it has done me. 
M. R. P. Lanier. 
Hogansville, Ga., March 29, 1889. 
Drs. Starkey & Paten: 
Eight years ago I was making frequent reports to 
you, but thanks to your Compound Oxygen Treatment 
I have no report other than continued good health to 
make. 
The weakness of my lungs, which resulted from the 
terrible hemorrhages of two years before, was com- 
pletely cured by your Compound Oxygen Treatment, 
and no Indications of any further difficulty have man- 
ifested themselves. 
I think I owe my life, certainly my good health, to 
your Compound Oxygen Tieatment. 
Chas. S. Webb. 
Oshkosh, Wis., March 6, 1889. 
Drs. Starkey <t- Paten: 
My system was in such a condition 
Catarrh and that I became subject to catairh 
General Debility, in almost every form. 
But under your Compound Oxy- 
gen Treatment my olfactories are beginning to wake 
from a long sleep of twelve ytars. 1 believe my sense 
of smell will be wholly restored. 
Your Compound Oxygen Treatment, I realize fully, 
is not a stimulant. It simply puts the system in acon- 
dition to recuperate health. I certainly wish all tired- 
out mothers could use it. 
Your treatment makes me sleep as in the days of 
childhood, and I awake refreshed with a splendid ap- 
petite. 
I heartily say that your Compound Oxygen Treat- 
ment is the grandest remedial agent ytt discovered. 
Mrs. Mary A. Canthorn. 
Erin Shades, Henrica Co., Va., March 21, 1889. 
Drs. Starkey & Palen’s office records show over 50,000 
cases in which their Compound Oxygen Treatment has 
been used by physicians in their practice, and byinvalids 
independently, in cases of consumption, bronchitis, 
asthma, catarrh, dyspepsia, nervous prostration, rheu- 
matism, neuralgia, and all other complaints of a 
chronic nature. Their brochure of 200 pages will be 
forwarded free of charge to any one addressing Drs. 
Starkey & Palen, No. 1529 Arch Street, Philadelphia, 
Pa.; 120 Sutter St., San Francisco, Cal.; 58 Church St., 
Toronto, Canada. 
