The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1895-10-04
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THE f POTATO.
Editor Democrat Star.

Knowing your loyalty to our 'Cow
Countless" or pine woods, / feel sue
you will do what you can to aid the
production Of our chief agriculture
the sweet potato. Webster says Of
the potato Irish that sit has proved
one Of the greatest blessings bestowed
on mar by the Creator, and that it
has often contributed To prevent
famine" II Webster had lived on
this coast, he would have written
equally as well of our sweet potato.
II you will look at the representation
Of a sweet potato in Webster's picto-
rial Illustrations you would think it
a picture Of figs or other small fruit.
The sweet potato is, or was a native
of East and West India, and of China,
but / think none of the varieties of
the sweet potato ever attained to per-
lection until Il old friend Doolcy
got up the Dooley or round loaf yellow
yam. This variety, if planted in new
rich land, will produce as carly and as
much as any other, and it is by far the
best OF all the varieties. The sweet
potato is very arbitrary as to the soil
In which it will grow. No living man
has yet learned how to make good yam
potatoes on old land.
Our pine woods land, if fcrtilized a
little, will make good potatoes for two
to three years, but after that period
there seems to be wanting some mat
ter or chemical, without which this
potato will not thrive we'll. If you
try to replace this necessary matter
by any fertilizer yet known, the potato
will split open and almost turn inside
out and make such a queer looking
thing that even the ''mother potato"
would hardly recognize it as a "little
yam" Right here comes in the great
est hindrance to the extensive cult.
yation of the sweet potato. If sweet
potatoes could be raised, year after
year on old land that has been cleared
OF stumps, etc, so that they could be
planted or r%eplantcd, watercd, worked
and gathered by harvesters and other
machinery that could be made for the
purpose, then any of our farmers
could cultivate twenty to one hundred
acres of them. If any man will find
out, and tell us how to raise good
Dooley yam potatoes on old land, and
then tell us how to keep them from
rotting. he will confer a greater boon
on mankind than did George Wash.
ington or Abraham Lincoln.
There is some singular facts con
nected with the potato question. ]
am now nearly fifty years old, anG
have been Settling out" and scratch
ing 'taters ever since | was a "shirt
+. tailed" boy, and l have inquired of
and discussed potatoes with all TIT
potato kings of the country, yet i
there is any well defined or settled
plan, in either producing or trying Il
save or keep them, l don't know wha,
1t Is. The old darkcy's plan OF eatin.
all up before digging time is the on,
mostly followed.
Soon after the wal one travelling NJ
North would seldom find sweet pota
toes at the best hotels, but now til,
yam is found on every 6rst.class bill
OF fare.
l think shall try to get the mex
Legislature OF our State to offer a re
ward of ten thousand dollars to an,
mar who can invent or discover IA fer
tilizcr by which good yellow yams ca.
be produced on old land for l repea
with all caDdor, that such a fertilizc
would be worth millions of dollars t
Mississippi alone. The sweet potat
is the most digestible of all foods
and like the old negr0's rabbit 5000
for anything and at all times" Rea.
ly, I'd like to have them at least thrc
times a day.
IL writing this Glove letter. to til
sweet potato should lead to the di.
covery of some fertilizer by which
can be made to produce sweet potf
toes on old land as we'll as new. then
will have deserved a monument to m
memory. Laudon, quoted by Wei
ster, says that it was the swEE
potato OF which Shakespeare wrote
l have never seen his verses on thi
theme, yet il he lived now and i
these parts they would read about q
follows:
The way to cure a scalawag,
A bloody-shirter or carpet-bager,
Or if he be South-hater
Just let him eat one sweet later.
For
The Yankee has his pork and beans,
The Englishman his beef and bread,
No other race that | have seen
Are half so smart or so we'll fed
Yet all must say now or later
The best of all is our later.
Respectfully dedicated to Hon. 4
A. Vaughan, the potato king of Jacl
son county, by his old friend an