OCR Text |
Show bushel of small potatoes, 21 to 32 sqare feet. These limits are for rootsbedded with customary thickness, thick-ness, but they lack exactness because there is no definite standard for determining whether a sweet potato is large, small, or medium in size. The quantity of seed potatoes required by an acre varies even more widely than does that for a given plant bed, by reason of the fact that 3or more crops of sets are produced. Moreover, the number of plants per acrve aries in different localities from 5,000 to 10,000. Hence the following follow-ing figures are presented only as rather rough estimates. An experienced exper-ienced New Jersey truck ' farmer reports that he is able to utilize, during the entire planting season (which is comparatively short in New Jersey), 2,500 sets from every bushel of small seed potatoes bedded. In localities where the. chief dependence de-pendence is on vine cuttings from early plants, much smaller amounts of seed will suffice. A Texas farmer obtained from 1 acre of plants propagated prop-agated by sets sufficient vine cuttings to supply 2 or more acres; another in Florida cut from 1 acre vines enough to set out 4 acres. PROPAGATION BY VINE CUTTING. Propagation of sweet potatoes by means of vine cuttings ,is of great enconomic importance, this method being in general use in the Gulf States and other States with a similar climate. Even as far north as the counties of Virginia lying a-long'the a-long'the Chesapeake Bay-small roots to be used as potatoes in the following follow-ing spring are obtained by, setting out vine cuttings. The data furnished by growers seem to indicate that as a: general rule vine cuttings .can be set put 'wlth''advantage untiL'withia 90 to 105 days before the average')date at which the first autumn frost occurs in a given locality. SOIL CHARACTER AND PREPARATION. The sweet potato' makes its best growth on a warm, sandy, well- drained, or even dry soil. Light i loams are also suitable. Recently cleared ground, if susceptible of thorough preparation, is suitable for the sweet potato, provided it is entirely free from shade. For cold, compact clay this plant seems to have an aversion. On Southern farms the sweet potato is too often relegated to the poorest fields, under the scarcely . tenable, but widely current, opinion that a rich soil or liberal manuring making luxuriant vines at the expense of the roots. The soil should be of such texture and color that it will not adhere to and stain the roots. Clay adheres to the roots and injures- their appearance; ap-pearance; sand is easily rubbed off in handling. 7eeds are troublesome and expensive visitors in the sweet-potato field, and hence the crop should follow a hoed crop. An exception perhaps to this rule is the growth of crimson clover to be plowed under in April or May as -a green manure for the sweet-potato plant. Sweet Potatoes: Culture And Uses. (Continued) AMOUNT AND CHARACTER OF SWEET POTATOES USED FOR SEED. Since sweet potatoes of every size, from that of a cigar upward, are bedded, the amount of seed potatoes required to fill a plant "bed of given dimension or to furnish sets for an acre varies within certain wide lim- its. The larger the potatoes the smaller the amount of plantbed' space necessary to accommodate a bushel, the smaller the number of sets per bushel of bedded roots, and the greater the number of bushels of seed potatoes required to furnish sets for an acre. The space in the plant bed cover-- cover-- ed by 1 bushel of large sweet potatoes pota-toes is estimated at 9 to 17 square feet; by 1 bushel of mediumsized 'roots, 17 to 25 square feet; by 1 |