Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-04-23
sweet Potato Culture.

Mr.. W. W. Rathbone, of Wash
inton county, Ohio, gives his ex-
perience in the cultivation of the
sweet potato as follows:
L have made a speciality of the
sweet potato for twenty years,
raise annually fifteen acres, and
preserve the product over winter
for seed and table use; the table
potatoes are now sWeeter and bet.
ter than in October last when dug,
as a portion Of water has evapora-
ted. If a person can devise plan
by which he can increase his crop
and save half the labor, he accom-
plishes something worth telling
Now, this is the case with my sweet
potato culture. l used to 60 to the
field with ten hands, and lay out
fourofold the expense in hoeing up
the hills in readiness for the plants,
that | now find necessary to expend
in having the entire crop set. |
now set my crop as fast as two
horse team can cross the field and
return, following the team closely,
while the soil is freshly turned,
planting all day long, right in the
sunshine, without any watering to
'sodden" the ground, or, as my
Dutch boy had it, when l followed
the "sodden" plan, setting the
plants in a clod." To show how
easy it is to plant an acre with
sweet-potatoos, l copy the following
from the Marietta Register Of May
2S, 1868:
Ten lads, from II to 16 years of
age, at Rathbone's Clifton Garden,
set out 81, 900 sweet potato plants in
IA hours; and in six days, working
from to 10 hours, set out $50, 900
plants, covering IA acres-and the
best part of the item is, the plants
live"
Now, [ am able to do this rapid
work by pudding the plants, and
by many years experience | have
proved that the plan is not injuA
rious, as l had whimsical notions
that it would be, many years ago.
Again: to expedite, l cut the
ridges into hills at the second hoe
ing, or first if you choose. Again:
my farm is so small, that | cannot
afford TO plant "four feet each
way" SO l have my ridges but
two feet two inches, and L find
that these narrow rows give better
returns per row than the four foot
ers. Once per row, with a single
shovel pillow, hoes the row both
sides to perfection, and L find it
poor economy to do by manual
labor anything a horse can do.
1 pillow once a week till July 90,
when the vines become too large,
and then the work is done. l do
not know what my yield is per acre,
but if you could but see my two
horse team upsetting the golden
nuggets in October, as fast as fifteen
boys can pick them up, methinks
you would judge it satisfactory. |
once measured for premium, with :
out manure, 1929 bushels per acre.
| have tried many varieties, and,
rejecting all others, raise the Yellow
Nansemond only. All writers agree
that it is best. Why, then, raise
any other? By saving the largest
sized tubers for seed for a long series
of years, the desired improvement
of this variety is plainly manifest
in my crop.
My horticultural and agricultural
reading proves that there is no crop
SO often mis-written as this best of
esculents, and hundreds of your
readers do not try to raise this lux
ury, Just because they think it inn
| possible. Many do not try because
they have not sandy land-the wri
ter has not a rod. The late John
w. Ten Brook, a very successful
and large cultivator, had a heavier
soil still.