People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1895-02-21

Ill UuTee years eApeI luleuGluS III
every conceivable manner, l found
myself master Of the situation. l
was blessed with success. l found no
trouble in raising them by the thous-
ands of bushels. Every gentle ami
NAL on the place learned to eat them
in a short time. They not only took
the place of corn, but greatly super
seeded it. When boiled they will
start hens to laying faster than any
thing l ever fed to poultry. They are
the best food for young pigs in the
world and will fatten hogs faster than
corn, and my family pork, at that time
from fifteen to twenty-five hogs, got
nothing but sweet potatoes. They
made good, fat pork and | never had
a sick hog while feeding them. J.
have fed them to cattle with good
results, (they must be chopped for
cattle, and to NY wOrk-horSes for
years. have taken old WORKOUT
horses, fevered on corn and in the
last stages of life, lat first for an ex-
pertinent put them on three pailfuls
of sweet potatoes per day, allowing
them to run on the range and Craze
also, and they would come up for
their potatoes, fat, long before spring,
and just as serviceable as ever for
a half dozen more years. The analy-
sis of this potato shows that it is
very rich food, even for the human
family. A person for days with no
other food seems to do wonderful well.
This is well known in the south,
where, in slave time lazy darkieS, to
avoid the hard work in harvesting the
sugar cane, would hide out in the
swamps and jungles, and for weeks
and even months would SubSiSt on
nothing but roast vans and when
captured would be found sleek and
fat and ready for service.
Experience has taught me that
when a man moves any great distance
from one locality to another that the
old adage is the best, when you are
in London do as they do in London,
and in moving to Sumner county,
Kansas, l did so and l regret it very
much. | miss my sweet potatoes ter
ribly. However, there were many
obstacles in the way, loaded with
business improvements, tight fences,
, the hot beds and various other eXper-
iments which must be gene over first,
but when the corn burned up with
, the hot winds, | always thought OF
the sweet potatoes. The hot winds
of 1913 and crop failure started me in
earnest and now | have had consider.
, able experience in the past few years
, in Kansas. | find that the best vari'
cites are very hardy and do wonder
fully well when started early, even
such seasons as '93 and '94, the early
plants yielded about two hundred
2 bushels to the acre and were very
fine. The last ones set out in '94
: were not set out until June 22nd anC
did very well, hut the showers wert
so light that not over half the vine!
: that were set out grew.
r All these experiments point out thu
: great necessity of the hOtbed in Ordel
to get the plants and vines started
e early when the soil is moist and cool
0 Every plant will grow with but yer,
/ little attention and when one,
f started, it is but little trouble t,
s take care of the weeds. You Cal
S afford to do this faithfully, for tn,
sweet potato is the most faithful o
f plants on earth. l never saw fail
e ure. 1t grows prolific all over GU
e land from ocean to ocean and as ia
e north as the British line, in fact
r everywhere except in the state 0
n Maine and a few small states adjoir
e ing. For years l have realized tn
benefits of this wonderful potato,
knowledge of which would bring Ill
told blessings or our nation, and hay
contemplated writing it up in boo
- form, so that any person who may b
= so situated may give it a trial. TIL
= book will be ready about March Isl
>. with full directions on the hOtbeC
preparing the ground, planting, cult
- waiting, harvesting, housing, et(
. Some valuable hints on irrigation, tn
- garden and the table. Do not clea
= out your stables. Spread it out levt
under your horses. No other manW
;, will answer so well for a hCtbed. An
= that has been fOrked out in hea
, will not do. VIM. DUGAN.
TO be continued
II Grana Culfura