The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-09
The Sweet Potato Growing in Favor.

The Sweet Potato Growing in Favor.
AS is the case with our Cow" peas the
sweet potato evinces a marked tendency
to go little further northward every
year. Certainly there is no reason what
ever, why these two plants, peas and po-
tatoes, should not be grown in the middle
states, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana,
Ohio. Both crops require only 100 days
at the furthest for perfect maturity In
fact, some early varieties require even
less time than this to mature. Readers
of the agricultural papers doubtless have
noticed that our field peas are creating
considerable interest in the states above
mentioned and the writer of these lines
has received in the past six weeks at least
half dozen letters from farmers in the
middle states asking about the best varie-
ties OF sweet potatoes for northern use.
This is a crop that the writer has taken
special interest in for the past fifteen
years. having grown as many as 5000
bushels in one season He has become
impressed with the value of this vegetable
and he loses no opportunity to urge in
creased attention to it. The sweet potato
is easily made and is easily kept through
the winter. Anywhere from 100 to 500
sweet, pound for pound, is worth all
that the Irish is. If anything, it is more
fattening than the Irish.
While the mode of culture is somewhat
different it does not involve any more ex-
pense than the Irish after all The extra
expense OF transDlanting is very little.
The small pota toes there, that are too
small to be merchantable, make as good
seed as the large ones. These should be
bedded in cold frames some six to eigh t
511rr lr,fs ,,1n Ia
be set out in the field. In
Middle Georgia, we bed, the potatoes
early in March, and begin to set out dur
ing the latter part of April, and continue
to set through May and June, frequently
up to July 20.
Hot beds are not necessary for the pur-
pose of providing plants. Well made and
well managed cold frames answer every
purpose in providing plants just as early
as it is safe to set OUT. The large ma
jority of our farmers do not even use
cold frames, but make the beds out in the
open ground during the early days of
March. Some use stable manure under
the potato to create little extra heat
but the majority do not even resort to
this adjunct.
VARIETIES.
There are some twenty-five or more
varieties listed in the several bulletins of
LAlC kDOubuCIu LApGIlulGub II CldulOu.
but in any one LOCALITY rarely more IMAM
four Or five kinds will be found. The
nomenclature of the potato is badly
mixed. Nearly every locality will have a
local name for the same potato.
1t is fact that the northen preference
is for a potato that the southern taste
does not call for at all. The north chooses
dry, mealy tuber, while the south de-
mands a soft, sugary variety. So the
SOut bpIn trucker grows Onp kind for shin
ment and another kind to sell at home
For southern consumption the three most
popular and generally grown varieties
are the Georgia yellow yam, the pump
kim yam and the Spanish.
For northern shipment the Jersey
sweet and the ''Nausemond" are most
generally grown.
AS a horticulturist of some twenty-five
years experience, admit am much per-
picked as to names of the sweet potato
and would like to see commission ap-
pointed to reconcile conflicting names
and eliminate confusing synonyms.
In the past three or four years new
variety of great merit has been intro
duced that is bound to supplant the
majority of the kinds now in use. This is
the yellow Bunch Yam kind that has
little or no vine-sO little vine that it in
wolves no labor a all in turning it in the
process of cultivation. We find it to be
OF excellent edible qualities, and is very
productive, and so far as we have been
able to observe, as good a keeper as any.
Thus far, we are delighted with it. And
II 1t sustains its present characteristics
IL must become very generally popular
north as well as south. A recent bulletin
OF the Texas Experiment Station NO.
~ corroborates fully our own experience
OF the past two years.
those interested in the culture of sweet
potatoes would do well to send and get
This bulletin as it imparts considerable
information on the subject