Planting them with the plough results in failure, and the non-success may vs 
be attributed to the fact that the soil cannot be pressed firmly enough around Fic alits 
the cuttings. 
If the work is well done and the weather favourable, in twenty-four hours 
the cuttings will have set rootlets from } to} inch long, and in less than a. 
week they will be well rooted. 
The first implement to use a few days after planting is the single-horse 
Ajax lever harrows, with*the teeth slightly reversed. Then when the rows are 
easily seen, keep the Planet juniecr’s scarifier at work, at first as deep set ag 
possible, then gradually shallower. Supplement its work close to the rows 
with the hand Planet junior’s hoe (especially with the two curved knives and — 
the two little rakes), an implement indispensable to the farmer who intends to 
succeed on the land. In short, keep the land perfectly free from weeds until 
the vines are bushy enough to cover it entirely, then let well alone. 
With favourable weather, in less than three months the field will appear 
hike an uninterrupted ocean of green, with here and there a few bluish flower- 
bells. By digging carefully at this time a few tubers may be obtained here sre) 
and there. Break them off cautiously, and carefully cover up again the =! 
‘denuded roots. an 
For the main crop wait till the fall. Cut away the vines, say, witha 
reaping-hook ; let them dry, and store away. They make a fair hay, and will 
be relished by both horses and eattle during the cold frosty winter. For 
digging by hand, the best implement is a mattock or a very strony double- 
pronged hoe. With them dig on the side of the row until the tubers are WELLS aaaee 
denuded. Then pullout the whole of the tubers, which, in the White Maltese, — - 
_ hang like a bunch of carrots all round the collar of the plant. Shake the earth 
off and let them dry up a bit before bagging and marketing. A strong plough — 
able to pass under the tubers and drawn by two horses, one on each side of the 
row, saves a good deal of labour. ‘ 
No disease of any kind has yet, to the writer’s knowledge, attacked the 
sweet potato inthe West. Still there are in its cultivation at least two serious 
drawbacks to contend against. ‘The first consists in the fact that many plants 
_.do not give any tubers—remain bare, without any apparent reason for doing 
so. This can be toa certain extent accounted for by the frequent changes 
of tubers for raising shoots. It is probably also the result of the propagation 
of the Batata for centuries by cuttings only, which means that the same plant 
has lived for centuries. This cannot result in anything but the gradual 
exhaustion of the fruiting, or rather twbering power. The remedy. must 
apparently be looked for in the raising of new varieties from seeds. If Mr. 
Soutter, of the Acclimatisation Gardens, who is possessed of the necessary — 
knowledge, the hot-houses, bush-houses, &¢., would kindly do for the sweet 
potato-grower what he did for the sugar-cane and pineapple growers, he would’ 
confer a great boon on the whole colony. Sing 
The second drawback is found in caterpillars. They seem to appear at — 
any time during the summer—sometimes once, sometimes twice in a season. 
Not seldom they appear in millions, eating away acres in a single day as bare. 
as could be done by a flock of goats. This last season they have been especially 
bad on the writer's 5-acre block, a considerable part of which they destroyed in 
two or threedays. Paris green mixed with powdered lime or ashes, and shaken 
in the early morning or after a shower on the plants from a thinly-woyen bag, 
is sure to kill them; but it is decidedly objectionable and dangerous to have = 
acres of poisonous powder on a place where animals, people, and especially i 
children live. In that case the only way is to put a pair of scissors in every ! 
available hand on the farm, and to go along the row cutting in two every 
caterpillar. This is laborious work, but with the assistance of birds is effective, 
, the best variety of sweet potato to grow is undoubtedly, so far as is 
known at present, the White Maitese. Its flesh is white, mealy, and savoury. 
The tubers, being elongated, sink deep in the ground, which enables the plant 
to stand the drought remarkably well. During the last terrible season, the 
