Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1864-04-29
SWEET POTATO CULTURE.

SWEET POTATO CULTURE.
We give the authority Of The Sweet Potato
Culturist for some timely suggestions in the
culture of this admirable tuber: Is 4 sl :
Sandy soil, moderately fertile, with which
plenty of well-rotted manure has been mixed,
is better for sweet potatoes. They do well on
newly-cleared land without manure, and even
on poor soil, sometimes produce tolerable
crop; but a good garden soil is better, as one
of my neighbors proved last year, by growing
seTenty-fve bushels on an eighth of an acre,
where an old stable once stood. This prescrip-
tion is good for sandy loan with a porous
gravelly subsoilo or thin clay soils; but on much
of our rich black soil manuring is injurious to
the sweet potato producing an excess ofvihes,
at the expense Of the tubers. They may be-
cultivated on clay. and, indeed. on a0y) sod
where Irish potatoes will do well, but in all,
cases the land should have thorough tiIIage,
by deep pIoWing and narrowing well, until the
soil is in fine tilth, and the ground must be nsta
urally dry orsbe made so by draiuing9 'zalgt
Sweet Potatoes will grow when the hilIsa are
dry as dust: hence the yield is better in dry.
hot seasons than in wet ones. If the land is
well prepared by deep culture it is unnecessary
to make high hills, as. they are only q substi-
tute for deep blowing.
Where but few are cultivated, the hills may
be prepared with q hoe, but it is too expensive
for field culture, requiring fopr days hard labor
to hill an acre. .-...-5T All 81 f.----.3o 80
The following method of planting We know
to be good, and but few plants will be lost even
if it is quite dry when they are set. As far as
practicable set them late in the afternoons, sdl
Everything being ready, the plants may be
set the same as cabbage plants. Better to Sc
Iect cloudy day, and if the soil is only moist
| (which is best) they should be watered as SET
My method is this; I have water hauled and
placed 10 barrels at convenient distances. We
take tao rows at time. A. boy goes 6rst,
and drops plant on each hill; two men follow
close after, making funnel-shaped hole in the
top of each bill with the right hand, while
| they hold the plant in the left, and man be,
| fore them walking backward with a waterproof,
the nose off or bucket of water and pint-cup,
pours in sufficient water, when the earth is
immediately hauled in upon the roots OF the
plant, the hole filed up levsl, and little dry,
earth upon the top prevents baking in the sun.
Like most other crops, early planting iGgen,
orally the best, or as soon as the danger from
4 AEu1h 40 AS01AS OAS LuC pAouAAuB may lDr GCu-
tiuued from the 10Th Of May to the lst Of Ju-
ly; but the yield from late planting is much
less-one hundred and fifty bushels per acrs
being good yield where all the circumstances
are favorable. a -. o. -. .s-. 5-
sH1 t*iI CORN PLANTING.
a correspondents of the Prairie Farmer saws
that corn should be planted shallow where the
ground is wet, as it suffers for want Of air, rotl
or shoots feebly, twisting and breaking into
leaf beneath the surface. Or If it appears il
remains without advance till it forms an upper
set of roots about l Il inches from the surface,
Indicating 1 think the depth for ordinary plant
ing. When the ground is dry it should be
planted deep enough to secure moisture, for
air cireulates freely in dry earth; if shallow it
needs moisture. The seed retaining its nutri-
ment is taken from the loose earth with facil-
ity by the birds or squirrels, and they are TOO
apt to defeat any attempt to get a stand by
after planting. q
TO ooNQUER oUTwoRM.
| A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer who
had planted four acres Of cabbage, found the
plants destroyed by cutworns, replanted and
found them again destroyed, and on replant-
ing second time concluded to try the virtue
of tobacco juice as preventive ''s.s s..e
i IL therefore put about half pound Of to-
bacco into bucket Of boiling water aud when
it was cool I took pint cup and put little
on each plant as prieked'it out. I looked
! next morning and found one plant destroyed
and the worm beside it dead. ] always pFFae.
tice the same plan and do not think I have
lost plant since"
- z-l
r. -, A ,orru f,o,.u.,.,.,,,,,. 4. !.