AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
55 
bagas, and a few cabbages and onions, as 
many as our folks wanted to use. We have 
also had beans, peas and corn, what we 
wanted to use green; and I have annually 
had about three or four bushels of dry corn, 
one bushel of pop-corn, and sweet corn 
enough to plant myself and supply all my 
neighbors. Also I have annually raised cu¬ 
cumbers, water and muskmelons, summer 
and winter squashes, one or two hundred, or 
one thousand pounds of pumpkins. All this 
has been raised on less than half an acre of 
ground, including buildings and drive-way— 
and I have had more vegetables for years in 
my family than some men that cultivate one 
hundred acres—all on poor, gravelly New- 
Hampshire land, without any help but my 
girls in the flower department. And, as 
Goldsmith says, “we make every rod of 
ground support its man.”— Cor. N. E. Farmer. 
THE CULTURE OF SWEET POTATOES. 
I have recently noticed frequent inquiries 
on the culture of the sweet potato. Having 
had some little experience in this branch of 
horticulture, I will briefly state the mode and 
the results. 
Source of Seed. —This I always procure 
from the city of New-York, to which it is, I 
suppose, in all cases brought from further 
south. I sometimes send directly there for 
it, and at other times procure it here from 
grocers who have recently procured it for 
retail here. Potatoes raised here are always 
too imperfectly mature to be preserved; 
they perish with a dry rot even when stored 
in small quantities, in dry sand, and in a 
cool and airy place. 
Soil. —I have cultivated them in a light sand, 
a sandy loam, both of moderate fertility, and 
in a moist rich sand. I prefer the former, 
because it secures a slower growth and re¬ 
sults in the earlier formation of tubers, and 
of course in a more perfect maturity than 
either of the others. 
Mode of Growth. —The vine and leaf some¬ 
what resemble a bean trailing over the 
ground. Perhaps it still more resembles 
wild buckwheat, though its leaf is larger and 
a yellower green. The vines often make 
eight feet in length in a rich and moist soil, 
though usually four feet is as long as is 
desirable. In rich soil and moist weather 
they lrequently throw down roots at inter¬ 
vals along the vines, which produce tubers at 
these points, and so fill the whole soil with 
tubers. This, however, is not deskjdde, as 
these scattering tubers are usually *ry im¬ 
perfectly ripened. The tubers almost always 
stand up lengthwise in the soil, instead of 
lying horizontally, as in the case of the com¬ 
mon potato. 
Preparatory Culture in the Hot-bed. —Hav¬ 
ing procured your seed tubers, bury them in 
an ordinary hot-bed, about the 20th of April, 
in Central New-York. Place them length¬ 
wise, and nearly end to end, in rows across 
the bed, the rows about six inches apart, 
covering them about three inches deep with 
soil. In two or three weeks, according to 
the heat of the bed, each tuber will throw up 
from five to thirty sprouts close to the side 
of the parent. As soon as these are three 
or four inches high, take up the tuber care¬ 
fully and break them off close to the parent, 
so as to save the side roots. The tubers 
may then be replaced for the production of 
a second and even a third crop of sprouts. 
Some prefer breaking them off in the ground, 
but I have always found it safe to take the 
tubers quite out of the ground for this pur¬ 
pose. This method of procuring plants is 
practised even in the southern States, since 
otherwise too many shoots would be pro¬ 
duced. With us this mode becomes further 
indispensable as the only means of getting 
our plants sufficiently early. 
Mode of Culture in the Field. —Plow your 
ground, and throw it into ridges five or six 
feet apart. This is needful—first because 
your tuber, needing to spread sidewise, will 
form more readily than when penetrating 
deep into the soil; and secondly, they will 
thus be less likely to form roots along the 
vine. Set the plants on the ridge, about fif¬ 
teen inches apart, inserting them in the soil 
just as though they were tomato or cabbage 
plants. Should the weather be hot, cover 
t£e newly set plants with any large leaves, 
as of pie-plant, balm of Gilead, Ac. Hoe 
frequently until the vines cover the soil, but 
without increasing the height of the ridge. 
In wet and hot weather, it might be useful 
slightly to lift up the plants with a long, 
smooth pole, to prevent them from rooting. 
I have not observed that the sweet potato 
is liable to disease, otherwise than, as a 
tropical plant, it fears cold and rainy al¬ 
ternations of weather. 
Digging, Yield, Mode, of Preserving, fc .— 
Dig as soon as the vines are killed by the 
frost. Spread the tubers thinly on a dry, 
cool floor, where they may often be preserved 
for gradual use until mid-winter. 
I am not prepared to speak very positively 
of the yield. Undoubtedly it will usually be 
less than that of ordinary potatoes. In the 
hot, moist season of 1851, however, the yield 
was very large, and the whole cost of pro¬ 
duction not more than that of ordinary pota¬ 
toes by the bushel. 
Quality. —Here, after all, is the failing 
point of this crop. In a dry, warm season, 
when grown in rather poor, sandy soil, they 
are often quite eatable, and are very accepta¬ 
ble to those not accustomed to those pro¬ 
duced at the south. Often, however, they 
are quite watery and stringy—so much so as 
to be utterly uneatable to all who have ever 
used a good article. For this reason 1 would 
not advise their culture as far north as Cen¬ 
tral New-York ; not at least until you strike 
the shores of the western lakes, where the 
summer is from two to four weeks longer, 
and allows the plant a proportionally longer 
period to mature its tubers. 
I have written the preceding directions, 
not to encourage their culture, but to aid 
those who are determined to try that culture 
for themselves. Some of my directions will 
seem quite unnecessary to those familiar 
with their culture.— C. ~E. Goodrich, in Hor¬ 
ticulturist. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
PYRAMID PEAR TREES. 
In this mode of training, the first year’s 
shoot, or what is termed the graft shoot, 
must be shortened back to two feet, being 
careful to cut to a full bud. In the spring, 
when sufficiently long, rub off all laterals ex¬ 
cept five or six, which may be retained to 
furnish all the first tier of branches. As 
these grow, they must be tied down to sticks 
thrust into the ground for that purpose at 
equal distances. The leading shoot must be 
trained perpendicularly by a straight stake. 
The next winter the leading shoot may be 
cut back to sixteen inches from where it 
started the previous year, at which length 
another tier of branches may be formed, 
having taken out all intermediate buds. This 
second tier may be trained to grow in the 
spaces formed by the first, thereby giving as 
much room as possible. As the trees ad¬ 
vance in growth, additional tiers may be 
formed sixteen inches apart, to any required 
height. When planted in their permanent 
situations, which should be done when they 
have formed the third tier of blanches, stout 
sticks may be driven in the ground three feet 
from the stem, and at equal distances, upon 
which place an iron hoop and fasten it to the 
stakes by means of staples, to this the shoots 
may be tied down at equal distances. As 
the trees advance in growth, the upper tiers 
of branches may be tied to the lower ones. 
Summer pruning will be necessary in this 
mode of training, which consists in shorten¬ 
ing back the season’s growth to within four 
eyes. Trees may often be met with in nur¬ 
series suitable for this purpose, thereby sav¬ 
ing the trouble of growing them. 
The soil which I have used, and in which 
they sncceeded admirably, is one-third de¬ 
cayed turf, and one-third of thoroughly rot¬ 
ted stable manure, well mixed together. The 
remaining part was the top spit of the ground 
where the trees were planted, and was 
mixed in at the time of planting. Care must 
be taken to open a large hole and fill up with 
prepared mold previous to planting. Trees 
trained in this way, when planted on lawns 
and by the side of large and principal walks 
in a garden, have a pleasing effect, and are 
both useful and ornamental. 
W. Su.MMERSBEY. 
ROSES PROPAGATED BY CUTTINGS OF THE 
ROOTS. 
Having been advised to try the experiment 
of raising rose trees by taking cuttings of 
the roots, I did so, and found it to succeed 
admirably. The mode I adopted was as fol¬ 
lows : The first week in March I took some 
of the long, thick, and fleshy-looking roots 
of my English, French, Moss, and Perpetual 
roses, and cut them into pieces about three 
inches long. I then smoothed the surface 
of a border in front of a peach wall; upon 
this I laid the roots flat, at about six inches 
apart; when the roots were placed, I cover¬ 
ed them with 'fine sifted soil half an inch 
deep, gently beating it to the cuttings ; I then 
laid four inches more of loamy soil well en¬ 
riched with rotten cow-dung, a year old, 
giving the whole a good watering, and when 
dry, smoothed the surface over with the 
back of the spade. By the middle of May 
every cutting had sent one, and some two 
strong shoots, and on examination, I found 
the soil I had covered the cuttings with, to 
be filled with a mass of fine roots : at this 
time (July 5th) the shoots are more than a 
foot high. 
I have anxiously watered the bed, as, 
being in a sunny situation, I found it got dry, 
more especially so, from the bed being raised 
upon the old surface of the border ; it would 
have been better to have sunk it, so as finally 
to have it even with the surrounding soil. 
I have also grafted many of the above 
sorts of roses, as well as the China and Tea 
sections, into pieces of the more vigorous 
growers, and after fixing the graft in a piece 
of root which was only about three inches 
long, I planted it firmly, leaving only the 
graft above the soil in sandy loam, and 
plunged the pot in a gentle bottom heat; ten 
out of every dozen have uniformly united 
and made good plants the same season. 
While on the subject of increase by pieces 
of roots, I may remark that many of the 
Pelargoniums readily strike by bits of the 
somewhat firm portions of the roots. Last 
spring, I cut in a quantity of the Purple 
Unique bedding Geranium, and every piece 
pushed a shoot. I had above two hundred 
nice plants to turn out into the open ground 
by the end of May. The bits of roots were 
each about two inches long. Subsequently, 
by this process, I have propagated many of 
the new French spotted Geraniums, as well 
as Cape species.— Charles Grey, in Flori¬ 
culturel Cabinet. 
A Good Reason. —Prince Albert was blam¬ 
ing a little boy at Eton for not having learnt 
more at his age. “ It’s not my fault, sir,” 
replied the boy, “ for we have a holiday ev¬ 
ery time a Prince is born.” 
