The St. Joseph observer. [volume] (St. Joseph, Mo.) 1906-1932, 1917-05-19
SWEET POTATOES AS
SOURCE OF FOOD

WASHINGTON. d. C.-Sweet pota-
toes can be made an important and
cheap source Of food, say specialists in
the Z. s. department of agriculture
1t Is quite easy to increase the acre
age enormously and the adoption of
better methods OF handling and stor-
ing would improve the product 10
such an extent that the demand would
be greatly stimulated. Storing sweet
potatoes has always been a more diff
ficult problem than producing them.
large part of the southern crop is
kept in pits and banks, with the result
that probably 80 per cent of the po-
tatoes decay and even those which are
fit to put on the market, do not keep
well. Moreover, the pits and banks
cannot be opened during wet or rainy
weather without risk of injuring all
the stock In them, SO that 1t is not un-
common for growers to be unable, be-
cause of weather conditions, to get out
| their potatoes at the very time that
the market demand for them is great
est. These difficulties can be done
| away with to a great extent by the use
of sweet potato storage houses, the
lnldIdBcNltill anu CpUSlTuCLlDH VI " III n
are discussed in detail in Farmers Bull
| letin 54S Of the department of agri-
culture, Records covering the stor-
age in such buildings of 22S,3lS bu-
shells OF potatoes for an average per-
ion of 124 days, show the average de-
| cay to be only 2.45 per cent. If they
were to be adopted generally by grow
ers I'm the south, IT Is estimated that at
| least 10 million dollars would be ad-
| ded to the value of the crop each year.
| The sweet potato is. however, like
practically all other crops, subject TO
4 disease in the field as well as to decay
| in storage, Black rot, scurf and soft
| rot are found wherever the crop Is
| grown. Stem rot foot rot and other
| diseases Of minor importance are Sc
we're only in isolated centers, and, with
| the exception OF foot rot, all the dis
| eases do more damage In the north,
where the crop is grown intensively,
| than I'm the south. In the north the
| loss from disease Is estimated at from
| 10 to 40 per cent Of the annual crop;
in the South, including storage dis
eases, at from 10 to 20 per cent. The
best methods for the control of the
various diseases are discussed In Far
mers Bulletin IA. Partly because OF
the difference in their ability to resist
disease and partly because of market
demands, more attention should be
paid to the variety of sweet potato
grown. For example, Yellow Jerseys,
Big Stem Jerseys, Nancy Halls and
Early Carollnas are particularly sus-
ceptible to stem rot whereas most Of
the other commercial varieties are
more or less resistant. On the other
hand, the Yellow and the Big Stem
Jerseys, which are dry and mealy
when cooked. suit the northern con-
sumer and are the varieties commonly
sold to him. However, the markets OF
the central west and west will take
the semi-moist varieties such as Nancy
Hall and Dooley, If they are properly
graded and packed. The highest price
paid for carload lots OF sweet potatoes
on the Chicago market in 2 successive
seasons was for southern grown Nan
cy Hall. In the south, a moist fleshed
potato is preferred. A knowledge OF
such facts is essential TO profitable
marketing of the crop, but at the
present time most producers, especial
ly I'm the south, grow a number Of diff
ferent varieties in the same field and
store them miscellaneously together
The result is Improbable confusion