The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-20
The Fest sweet Potnto.

w. V. Moore, writing to Home and
Farm, says: But let me stop
this effort at phllosophizing and
get back to the mutton, which,
in this instance, is the best sweet
potato. Now, this also involves another
problem it depends altogether upon
the use or purpose to which you are GO
ing to apply the sweet potato. And
then, again. as Mr. Dill says, the tastes
of people differ In the matter of flavor.
quality and characteristic. Some of my
family-and we are all southern to the
core-some don't like the rich, juicy yam
they want in a sweet potato the dry,
mealy baker. We have had such a
great variety of tastes, inclination and
purpose in our farming interests that I
have Experimental quite freely this year
with the sweet potato, in the efforts to
determine what is best suited to all gem
eral purposes.
In the FIRST place, I have grown three
varieties of the Vineless yam-the Mis-
sissippi yam, or the bunch potato" with
dark, heavy serrated or forked leaf, the
favOrite of Mr.. Dill, and which Is a mag
nihcent tuber fit for kings or common
people, too, but not always, as l can
testify, thoroughly reliable cropper
(Other people have different experiences)
Then / have grown the new Vineless
yams, with the round, cup-shaped leaf,
more beautiful tuber, white in STEM
yet yellow-meated in cooking. This is
an entirely new potato, originating here
at Auburn, Ala, and called the ala
bama" yam" l had some fine specimens
of this variety-tubers with the vine or
leaf attached-on exhibition at the At
lanta exposition in October, with an exhibit
of tomato plants. the two securing an
award of a bronze medal. The expert
mentS included also another variety OF
Ylneless yam, a sprout from the Misss-
sippi bunch potato, and a tuber that does
not nave a single spare VINE" the whole
growth nothing but tubers, stem and leaf
Specimens Of these were also in my At
lanta exhibit.
The other varieties of the sweet potato
grown by me this year were the Dooley
yam, the old Southern yellow yam, The
Chill yam, the Pumpkin yam and the
great Virginia and New York favorite
the Nansemond yam.
1t will be seen by these statements that
in my experiments this year there were
eight varieties of the sweet potato placed
under the test The most prolific and the
best general purpose potato is, under my
cultivation, the Dooley yam. The best
table potato, the general favorite among
all-family and visitors alike-is the
Nansemond yam, the vine being decidedly
more popular than the Mississippi yam
or bunch, which stands next highest
fine potato a heavy cropper, early and
hardy, is the Chilli yam. pale red with
yellow, mealy meat. This is a new varfe-
ry recently introduced here under differ
but it is not the old red yam, known az
"Nigger Chokers." The old Southern
yellow is among the best. When one
tires of eating other varieties the "vel-
low comes in as a relief and as a never
fail If the "Eansemond" can be made
as sure crop with US as the old standard
the yellow" this latter will eventually
be largely superseded by the Virginia fay-
orite, which is both a beauty and a lux
ury. But the VineleSS varieties or bunch
potatoes, are rapidly coming to the
'front.' and they will, believe, finally be-
come the universal favorites, for both
field and garden culture.