The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1871-09-29
HOW TO PRESERVE SWEET porA
TOES DURING THE WINTER.

!; SCWyCf III phiPitohSO WIN q pIOll
Use made at your request some months
ago, to give you my method of nous
ing and preserving sweet potatoe
from rot during the winter and spring
and as the digging season is now APP
preaching, | proceed to give yol
briefly my plan, that You may give
it to your numerous readers, hoping
that some of your farming patrons
may be benefited.
For digging sweet potatoes select
sunny weathcr-the dryer the better
and if practicable, dig just before
the frost kills the vines, if not, as
soon as possible. When dug, let
them have the benefit of at least a
half days sun which will evaporate
all the moisture about them then
| pile them up in heaps Of from 20 to
100 bushels each, with pine bark or
some other dry substance under them
to exclude as much as possible the
moisture arising from the ground
then sprinkle with dry earth, letting
it run well down among them, filling
up the spaces between the potatoes
then cover the heaps with boards,
and on the boards coating of dirt at
least two inches chick, leaving an
opening at the top; then shelter with
boards, 50 rs to make the covering
perfectly waterproof. As III my
judgment the great secret in saving
them is in putting them away dry
and keeping them 50, with plenty OF
dry earth among them to absorb the
moisture which arises in the heaps.
Potatoes managed in this way
keep perfectly sound through the
winter and spring, and even until
July. have been thus minute in
giving my mode, knowing that many
differ with ne as regards the best
plan for preserving them through the
winter. as some contend that it Is
necessary to put them up wet to save
them.
When the inestimable value of a
potato crop is taken into considera-
! ton, it is then that the necessity for
some sure means of saving them be-
comes apparent. not unireqnently
hear men say they are well aware of
the value of the crop, but why make
them, they ask, when it is impossl-
BILE to save them beyond mid-winter
Such is the conclusion of many men,
who, though well apprized of the
value of the tuber. are deferred from
planting it to any extent The Wes-
tern man makes corn and grows
rich at it at 90 cts pr bushel on lands
that yields 40 to 80 bushels per acre.
Now, have we not much more rap
id and surer means of money-maklng
at hand in properly cultivating our
lands in sweet potatoes, where we
can by properly manuring make 500
10 400 bushels per acre, which com
mand readily in Macon from 81 20
to So 90 per bushel in the spring
and fall seasons, and never less than
70 cents per bushel.
Messrs. Greer & Lake of your
city inform me that they shipped last
spring, quantities Of Georgia raised
potatoes to the New England States.
So you see we not only have a mar
| ket here, but a demand for them from
! the North and East.
And even if we had no accessible
market for them, they can be made
highly rcmunerative crop by grow
ing them for cattle, hogs and horses,
subsisting milk COWS on them through
the winter and spring,
A crop raised with as little labor
as it takes to make corn, and one
that adds to the fertility of the soil
and one that pays the farmer much
more than any other. | do not see
why it should not be one of the lead
ing crops of Middle, East, South and
Southwest Georgia. I. j. SMITH.