zers on
plats of the same soil, during the same season, and notice the resulting
crop of potatoes.
Sweet potatoes will do well after almost any of the usual field crops.
This caution, however, should be borne in mind. Potatoes should not
follow a sod. This is because sods are often thick with cutworms, one of
the serious enemies of the potato.
It is needless to say that the ground must be kept clean by thorough
cultivation until the vines take full possession of the field.
In harvesting, extreme care should be used to avoid cutting and bruising
the potato, since bruises are as dangerous to a sweet potato as to an
apple, and render decay almost a certainty. Lay aside all bruised
potatoes for immediate use.
For shipment the potatoes should be graded and packed with care. An
extra outlay of fifty cents a barrel often brings a return of a dollar a
barrel in the market. One fact often neglected by Southern growers who
raise potatoes for a Northern market is that the Northern markets demand
a potato that will cook dry and mealy, and that they will not accept the
juicy, sugary potato so popular in the South.
The storage of sweet potatoes presents difficulties owing to their great
tendency to decay under the influence of the ever-present fungi and
bacteria. This tendency can be met by preventing bruises and by keeping
the bin free from rotting potatoes. The potatoes should be cleaned, and
after the moisture has been dried off they should be stored in a dry,
warm place.
The sweet-potato vine makes a fair quality of hay and with proper
precaution may be used for ensilage. Small, defective, unsalable
potatoes are rich in sugar and starch and are therefore good stock food.
Since they contain so much water they must be used only as an aid to
other diet.
SECTION XLI. WHITE, OR IRISH, POTATOES
Maize, or Indian corn, and potatoes are the two greatest gifts in the
way of food that America has bestowed on the other nations. Since their
adoption in the sixteenth century as a new food from recently discovered
America, white potatoes have become one of the world's most important
crops.
[Illustration: FIG. 204. CULTIVATING AND RIDGING POTATOES]
No grower will harvest large crops of potatoes unless he chooses soil
that suits the plant, selects his seed carefully, cultivates thoroughly,
feeds his land sufficiently, and sprays regularly.
The soil should be free from potato scab. This disease remains in land
for sever
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