86 
POTATO. 
of the seed roots,, tlie manner of preparing, and mode of 
planting the same. 
Potatoes may be planted from the first week in April until 
J uly, either in hills or drills ; the best way for a garden is to 
plant them in drills four or five inches deep, and about thirty 
inches asunder ; the sets may be dropped six or eight inches 
apart; and if a small quantity of combmaker’s horn shavings 
or sea weed be used as a manure for the early kinds, it will 
expedite their growth ; the ground should be hoed as soon 
as the plants come up, and as they progress in growth it 
will be proper to mould or earth them up twice. 
POTATO, (Sweet.) 
Pomme de terre douce. Convolvulus batatas. 
Sweet Potatoes are grown to great perfection in the 
Southern States, and may be raised in the vicinity of New- 
Yk>rk, by means of a moderate hot-bed, in which they should 
be planted whole, early in April, three or four inches deep, 
and about the same distance apart. In about a month they 
will throw up sprouts. When these are three inches above 
ground, part them off from the Potato, which, if suffered to 
remain, will produce more sprouts for a successive planting ; 
transplant them into rich light soil, in rows four feet apart, 
and the plants about a foot apart in the rows, or in hills four 
feet apart. Keep them clear of weeds until the vines begin 
to cover the ground, after which they will grow freely. In 
sandy ground, it is well to put a shovelful of rotten manure 
to each plant. 
A moderate hot-bed, five feet square, put down early in 
the month of April, with half a peck of good sound Sweet 
Potatoes placed therein, will produce a succession of sprouts 
in May and June, which if planted and managed as directed, 
will yield about fifteen bushels of good roots. 
