The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1885-04-15
SO2
Sweet Potato Culture


we publish by request our method of
we guarantee, if this plan is faitbf "IIu
pursued, good crop, and sound. fresh
bright looking tubers, as late in the sea,
son as desired. '0s'
SELECTION.
This is all important. Select good mo-
dium sized potatoes-strings are inferior
and II used continually will cause the
variety to degenerate. On the other
hand, by careful selection. the variety
may be improved and a uniform habit If
growth and size induced-neither foo
small nor too gigantic.
BEDDING.
Bed about Goth of March. in Cobb
county. Make bed as follows: Construct
frame OF twelve-inch plank, four feet
VIDE and-a long as desired, in a sunny
spot. with southern exposure. If build
ing IS on the north side, so much the
better Put in four inches of stable ma
nure, and on top of the manure three
!nches OF rich loan or woods-earth.
Plece the potatoes on this as as close as
they can lie without touching. Cover
with three or four inches of soil. The
slips will be above the ground in from two
to three weeks, and ready to put out by
10th April at latest.
SETTING OUT.
Select good, light, loamy soil CLAW
land will crack potatoes. Prepare thor
oughly by two plowings and borrowings.
Bed up usual way, three feet apart. using
stable manure in drill, with 200 pounds
acid phosphate put in with horn as for
cotton, in addition. Level tops of beds
with board. Send a hoe ahead when
ready to set out, and with one chop die
holes in top of bed, eighteen inches apart.
Follow the hoe with bucket of water
and pour gourd full to each hole. Drop
the slips in the holes, and follow with a
bucket OF thick mud paste, so stiff that
the slips will barely penetrate it, without
bending or swapping. Dip the root of
each slip as you come to it in the paste ;
when you withdraw it, s'gobv OF mud
an inch thick will adhere This will not
dry off for two days and gives the slip
time to take root before it does. 1t IS the
secret Of setting out safely! By this means
you needn't wait for rain or even confine
yourself to the cool of the evening; but
set out with absolute safety any hour of
the day, except from eleven to three,
with the certainty of not losing one plant
in hundred. Try to get all set out by
the first OF June.
CULTIVATION.
This is simple, and almost similar to
the first two workings of cotton After
second blowing the vines will take care
of themselves. No hoe work is neces-
sary except in very wet June. Last
E year we hoed once-the year previous
not at all.
DIGGING.
You needn't wait for frost, for if the
potatoes have had an early start, the last
- no& /
weather, will be the proper time to dig.
Dig in the morning; let them lie in the
sun till the middle of the afternoon and
bank up before night. Dig only as many
in the morning as you can handle con-
veniently in the afternoon,
BANKING.
Potato houses of various designs are
used with advantage. They are conven-
lent, and some are almost absolutely
safe. But every one hasn't a potato
house; nor is every one one able to have
one. We would like to have one, and
will some day probably build one, but at
psesent employ the following plan, which
we guarantee:
Under shelter, heap the potatoes (after
strings are culled) in forty bushel piles,
on foundation of straw In the center
of the bank erect wooden trough-pi-
ing the potatoes around it as the bank is
formed, constructed as follows: Take two
pieces of board, 1x4, and and about a
foot longer than the height the bank is
to be made, and with two other strips
1x4 and the same length, make trough
the interior of which is 2x4 inches. On
two sides bore with an inch bit series
of holes three inches apart, from the bot
tom up to within two feet of the top
l, 49, -. 1
by, far than wheat, if obtainable. Pile
on corn stalks, and finish off with a coat
ing of earth twelre inches thick.
The moisture, as the potatoes steam,
finds its way among the potatoes and
through the holes, thus drying off the
bank. In very cold weather stop the top
of the trough with wisp of hay
Georgia Paper.