The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-09-10
SWEET POTATOES.

Sweet potato is a name we now hear
everywhere. Carolina was the epithet
generally employed among US twenty
years ago, to designate the wholesome
root. 1t was then considered more of a
luxury, and was scarcely seen beyond
the tables of the rich. AS its use has
become more common, and its c%ultiva-
ton extended into higher ATTITUDES, it
has taken the name that, without con-
sulting dictionaries, the generality of
people would naturally give it. I rec
ollect the time when the ruralist could
scarcely ever procure this potato with
out sending expressly for it to the mar
kets of the city. In vain would one in
quire for it at the village store. 1t was
rarely kept there. The sweet potato
~(conUolO~tus 6a~tataS) is indigenous warm
climates. Like many other tropical
things, I believe it is better favored
when raised within the precincts of its
true home. 1 say this not merely from
conjecture, but after Having tested the
difference, by eating sons at the tables
of ~husbandmen dwelling on the banks of
the Tombigbee, and in my own native
State.
It was imported into England. from
the Indies by the way of Spain, before
the Irish potato was known there, and
was in those days supposed to possess
the qualities of restoring decayed vigor
to the human frame; and, consequently,
more frequently found in the shop of the
confectioner than in the larder of the
cook. The kissing comfts of Falstaf,
and such like CONNECTIONS, were princi-
pally made of batatas and eringo roots.
It seems at its first introduction into
England to have held forth no induce
ment to the cultivator.
In the days of Evylyn it was, as an
edible, in such bad repute, that he, in
his work on gardening, as early as the
year 1899, recommends that these po-
tatoes should be planted in the worst
ground. 1t grows in Spain and the Ca
nary Islands, and one variety has been
cultivated with success in the n~eighbor-
hood of Paris. Time has shown that
England's climate, at least, has proved
uncongeniai to improvements of any con-
sequence respecting its outdoor culture
The mists and rains about Loadon are
proverbial. Such extreme humidity is
very unfaVorable to the growth of this
root.
In our own country, it used to be cul-
tlvated almost altogether in the South
ern States. 1t has been gradually advan-
cling northward, until it is now raised of
excellent quality in the vicinity of Phil
adelphia. It is in the opinion of some
that, by reclamation, it may become a
profitable crop in certain districts in
this State. While on q visit one au-
tumn, at a farmers in Groton, I ate
some quite good ones, just dug from
ground bordering the southern side of
a fence. It is said they are cultivated
in Plymouth County, quite equal in
quality to those which come to us from
New Jersey and Virginia. An article
in the Ploughmau, about two years ago,
says: "The soil in Massachusetts, is not
generally adapted to the growth of this
plant. But there are strips Of interval,
and here and there patches of warm, san
dy land which, well manured, would
yield an abundant crop, much larger
than is ever realized from the common
potato. Its eating quality, raised on
such land, is averred, by those who have
tried the experiment in this State, to be
equal to the best Jerseys" An editor
of q certain agricultural paper says, re-
ferring to the cultivation of this nutri-
Gus root for fodder, The late Mr.. Low
ell, of Roxbury, succeeded in raising
them, and, if we rightly recollect, he
thought he could raise about as many
on an acre, and as certainly as he could
raise the Irish potato" If this can be
done, their fattening power will be found
much superior to that of the common
potato.-NelO England Farmer.