The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-09-07
SHORT CHAPTERS
On Vegetable Culture.
SWEET POTATOES.

SWEET POTATOES.
81 Tba sweet potato is usually field crop
nth southern farmers, as it is rarely admit
,od into the precincts Of the garden, but
sor,atiInes it is a good plan to treat it as a
garden vegetable. On good garden soil it is
not n very difficult matter to make from
B qopto 500 bushels of sweet potatoes on an
h ocre This is a crop that intensive culture
& NAYS on. Five dollars to $40 worth of suita-
HE notato manure, with two 30 four extra
opltivatings beyond what the field crop
rspallv receives, will make difference
oftentimes Of several hundred bushels on
H one acre.
How to manage an acre to make it pro-
dnce several hundred bushels may be stated
as follows:
Take fair, gray sandy soil and lay iJ off
At three feet, making the burrows broad and
shallow. Some weeks before planting out
time comes make mixture as follows:
Five hundred pounds of pure bone dust, 500
hounds Of oak OF hickory ashes that have
been rotted, but not Ieached one hundred
hounds of common salt. Mix these ingre-
dents together thoroughly, and spread the
compound over the burrows, and then list
upon it. Do this some time in March or
early April. When the potato plants are
nearly ready for setting out replow the
land, splitting open the bed deeply with a
scooter and bedding back on this furrow
with four furrows. Set the plants fifteen
inches apart on the bed. 1t will take lit
tie over l, 100 plants to set an acre at this
distance-to wit: three feet by fifteen
inches.
There Is no reason in the world why these
hills should not average at the lowest cal
culation one quart Of potatoes to the hill,
and this would give total product of 34J
bushels per acre. Good land, properly fer
tilted with mineral fertilizer and cult
waited as it should be can &. be made to double
the yield-which is to say two quarts per
hill. We have no doubt whatever thnt
premium of $1,000 offered for the largest
yield Of sweet potatoes on one acre would
produce yield Of 1000 bushels per
acre if twenty-five or moro persons COM
peted for the premium. We hope the
american AgricultUriSt will next season
90 for the sweet potato what it has done for
the Irish potato, and show the farmers of
the country how large q crop is possible on
one acre.
OF the two thesweet potato ia much more
desirable at least for the south If we were
restricted to one, but fortunately we can
have both to perfection.
Sweet potatoes can be grown on the same
land for many years, needing only a fair
application of the mineral elements from
time TO time. There is no crop cultivated
that so thoroughly shades the soil from
July to October as does the sweet potato.
This dense shading Of the soil. as is we'll
known, is productive of the formation of
Of nitrate nitrogen, and after
the first year or two the poorest soil will
be found TO posses an ample supply of nitro
gen for the further production of sweet po-
tato crops, any further application of fer
tilizer being confined entirely to the mineral
elements, phosphoric acid, potash and lime.
There are o great many more varieties"
of sweet potatoes planted in the south than
there should be. Many growers are salts
fed with some very inferior kinds that have
crept in gradually du ring the past twenty
five or thirty years, and grievously adul-
terated once splendid varieties that
were SO generally cultivated forty OF fifty
years ago. We have no doubt it is the case
elsewhere as it Is here, that it is q very
difficult matter to find any large quantity
OF the ober Georgia yam or the pink skin
Spanish. These two varieties are unsur-
passed by any others as to quality, though
perhaps not quite SO productive as some
Others. The potato most extensively grown
In this section now is the kind generally
known as the pumpkin yam, which, though
inferior for table use to the two just men,
tioned, is much superior TO several other
Kinds that are largely planted in Georgia.
"A very inferior potato, known as the
Haytl yam" or St. Domingo yam, is very
extensively grown in Georgia. 1t is good
klnd to grow for stock, but for table use it
Is very inferior, Inferior even to the white
yam pink skim, that is euphoniously desig-
hated as the "nigger killer"
AS We have remarked before, there is no
better work for our southern experiment
stations to do than that of reducing to
order the now very much confused nomen-
clature OF our sweet potatoes and separat-
ing the poor from the better and more de-
siraole varieties. Our several southern sta
tlonS cooperating together can, in the
course OF eight or ten years, weed out all
INFERIOR varieties and classify all such as are
worthy OF culture, perhaps introducing to
cuitiVatlon some new and desirable kinds
from the Seeds The sweet potato is no
doubt subject to the same deterioration
tnat the Irish potato is from long continued
cultivation from cuttings or sprouts and new
saIlebies started from the seed is something
W 10 sought after. Surely our stations in
Ihe southern states will not neglect this
very important matter. The station that
Iuiiy accomplishes this work will cover it
sen win glory and make full compensation
Ior the money expended upon it. As it is
~" some varieties are much more product
I'VE tnan others. Some are much better
Keepers. In these respects such as are in
ierlor should be discarded as soon as possi-
ble 49, WV ~
A new variety of potato has lately been
Introduced into cultivation that is quite
q =! from all others previously grown.
II Is styled the "Vineless" potato. 1t is an
Excellent quality of yam, and makes a
bush instead of vine. Tho originator sent
US US few potatoRs this year, and we dis
ulouted the plants raised from them
among our neighbors, all of whom inform
~ suas It susteins the claim made for it as
~ liaKlng no vine. 1t is too early yet to
sepeak OF Its productiveness, eating and
44teeplng qualities, but we will do that later.
~ ~ certainly much easier TO cultivate than
tnp. ordinary varieties-no vines to be
~, neu' but on rich soil after the crop is laid
s5.S Sue oushy form becomes SO dense as to
this thai b tue soil almost completely. More Of
however, at another time. 8. A. e.