Milford chronicle., 1915-04-02
LINCOLN FARMERS TALK
Sweet POTATO GROWING

The smoker given by Frank Glen
daniel at the hall in Lincoln on Thurs
day night, March the 25th, when the
growing of the sweet potato was dis
cussed from A to q, was largely
attended by the farmers. Mr. Gordy
of Laurel, a sweet potato grower of
many years experience, and Mr..
Walker, manager of the Pennsylvania
Railroad experimental farm at Bacon,
gave talks full of interest. Mr.. Gordv
told of the failures he had made when
starting to grow the sweet potato many
years ago, in not getting a larger Weld. !
His yield used to be about 200 baskets
of primes per acre, but through seed |
selection, proper plant food and cul- |
tivation, he has increased his yield /
until now it averages over 400 baskets |
of primes per acre each year. Mr.. |
Gordy made it plain, as all scientific |
farmers now realize, that seed selection
plays an important part in the yield of
any crop, and from his own exper-
iments this is even more important
with the sweet potato than with corn.
Darwin says ''all plants are only the
modified descendants of other plants"
so if you want to grow a chunky sweet
potato such as the markets demand,
don't bed a long stringy potato and
expect the slips from it to grow nice
chunky ones. Mr.. Gordy has tried
many varieties and is now testing some
new ones, but the variety that gives
him his largest yield of good chunky,
potatoes, is a compar-
atlvely new variety called the ''Big }
Leaf Up River jersey" Mr.. Gordy's {
method of growing seeds is to plant l
some slips each year and grow all of
his seeds the next year from this slip 7
stock; By this method he keeps almost I
free from the black rot, etc. He also >
said the ground should be in as fine a S
as a garden. He plants with
machine and cultivates with a rid
ng cultivatOr with a wheel hoe j.
litched on behind which a man guides. e
3y this method he doesn't have to use l
! hoe in his field He has some land a
hat has been in sweet potatoes for
wenty years without a rest. Mr.. 81
iordy, in speaking about varieties. ia
aid the Big Stem wasn't a smooth
ledium sized potato such as the mar y
ct wants, and was not a good keeper
D put into storage owing to it getting II
hat is known as soft noses, etc. The ei
edarville, while an excellent keeper.
as the tendency to grow too long and til
so is a light yielder. Mr.. Walker re
poke along about the same lines as
r. Gordy; in fact, Mr.. Walker said III
n. Gordy had left nothing on the sub an
ct for him to say. From the interest 81
lown we think it safe to say that in te,
e future Mr.. Clendaniel will not be a i
mpelled to go to other stations to br
I'VE potatoes hipped in here TO fill his 10,
rye storage house at Lincoln. M,
The speaker also spoke about the an
antity of good sweet potato land in M,
e vicinity of Lincoln, and told how an
e growing of sweet potatoes around IN
lurel, Del, in the last few years had .
used the land to advance two or ev.
rec hundred per cent. So all we NJ,
mt here are the proper methods of AZ
lture, fertilization, and the right wb
riety, and we too will be able to he,
Dw 400 or more baskets per acre of ~
me potatoes, as good as any section, r;,,
ring off our hat to none. NJ