The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-24
so1rrrHrM non rorAroHs.

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 k One of the most eiusive and unsatis- factory crops that an Alabama farmer or gardener can grow is sweet potatoes. It is one of the easiest of all crops to raise. They will grow on poor land or rich land. sandy land or clayey land. Some soils are better suited to them than others. but there is hardly a home or farm in Alabama where they may not be grown To grow them successfully requires as little scientific knowledge as Is required in the cultivation of almost any crop grown. It is almost as easy to raise potatoes as weeds.
 All this is well known. yet sweet potato raising is not profitable business. on a large scale. and this arises from two causes--shipping and preserving. Either there is not much demand for them in the North and East. and .n the great safely and economically transported. Whatever may bc the reason, it Is a fact that growing sweet potatoes in Alabama for export is . business of infinitesimal proportions. Another great obstacle to the success difficulty and uncertainty of keeping them through the Winter. In the Fall when the crop is dug. almost every farmer has a present supply. In the cities there is always a demand and those who have shipping facilities can usually find q market, but not for large quantities at any one time. In the latter part of the Winter there Is a demand, and in the Spring they are always scarce. Any farmer or market gardener will tell you that he knows how to keep potatoes, and any one of them will fail at times. He will assure you that 1t Is no trouble to keep sweet potatoes ''all the year round and then when planting time comes. he may have to buy seed for himself. The best of them sometimes fail.
 If this crop could be shipped and sold when first gathered. and could always find ready sale. just as is the case with cotton, it would be one of the most profitable crops that could be grown in Alabama. And that is just what is going | to be done. if The New York Commercial is correctly informed. That paper learns | that Northern firm with almost un- limited means is going extensively into the produce raising business in the South
 ana among other things they propose to enter very largely into the business of growing and shipping sweet potatoes. The Commercial says:
 If this company can provide plan that
 will make the shipment of Southern sweet potatoes in large colume not cnly practical but profitable, 1t will prove a | boon to thousands of Southern farmers for the crop is easily and cheapIy -aised and deserves better treatment than it has had In the past A chief difficulty lies in the providing of a steady demand at
 the North for the tubers. They must be popularized. The fact is that we don't know how to cook sweet potatoes up
 here. If they could be had cooked in the | style that the old-time black Dorcases and Chloes' did the thing the New York hotels and restaurants couldn't begin to supply the demand for the dish.
 The idea that there are American citi- gems who have no acquaintance with, or taste for. our ''bataltas" sounds strange to Southerner. but all portions of the Union are not blessed with the manifold
 good things of the South. Probably there
 are unfortunate people in the North and
 East who never saw baked, roasted or
 fried yams; who never enjoyed the de-
 light sof potato custard, revelled in potato
 pudding or delved into the delicious mys-
 teries of 8 slice-pie, not to mention pos sum and taters.' the unapproachable deli cacy of all the sons of Ham in Dixie.
 The method to be adopted, as we un- derstand the plans. consists in the es-
 tablishment of distributing stores at the
 principal points in New England, to furnish the products direct to the deal CTS, thus doing away with the necessity of employing others to handle the goods. There will be a large saving by this means. according to the opinion of those who are interested in the deal' This plan ought to succeed, 1t strikes us. though there may be obstacles which cam not be foreseen, but 1t apparently opens up to tho farmers and gardeners of this section an opportunity to add largely to ! the profits of their business.