Four inches of soil is filled into this bed and sweet potatoes placed upon it in a layer which is then covered with two or three inches more of soil.  Large potatoes may be split and laid flat side down.  The whole bed is then covered with muslin, operating on a roller by which to cover and uncover the bed.  Thus prepared, the bed may easily be kept at a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees F. by smouldering wood fires in the fire boxes.  The potatoes, kept moist at this temperature, sprout promptly and will be ready to transplant in about six weeks.  A bed of the size mentioned will receive five to seven bushels of seed roots, which will make slips enough to plant an acre or more of potatoes.

Growing Sweet Potatoes.

Please inform me how to keep sweet potatoes for seed; also how many pounds it takes for one acre, and what distance apart to plant, and the time to plant.

Sweet potatoes may be kept from sprouting by storage in a cool, dry place.  Sweet potatoes are not grown by direct cutting of the tuber as the ordinary potato is, but the tubers are put in January or later in a hot bed and the sprouts are taken off for planting when the ground becomes warm and all danger of frost is over in the locality.  The number of sprouts required for an acre is from five to ten thousand, and a bushel of small sweet potatoes will produce about two thousand sprouts if properly handled in the hot bed, which consists in removing the sprouts when they have attained a height of five or six inches, and in this way the potatoes will be yielding sprouts in succession for some time.  The sprouts are planted in rows far enough apart for horse cultivation.  They are usually hilled up pretty well after starting to grow well.  They cannot be planted until the danger of frost is over, for they are much more tender than Irish potatoes.

Sweet Potato Growing.

In planting sweet potatoes, do we have to make hotbeds just like those for tomatoes, or if just a plain seed-bed will do?  Is it necessary to irrigate them or not?

You can bed your sweet potatoes in a warm place on the sunny side of a building or board fence, and get sprouts all right.  You will, however, get them sooner and in greater numbers by using a slow hotbed in which the manure supply is not too large.  The fact that sweet potato growers do use some artificial heat, either from manure or by piping bottom-heat in their propagating houses, is a demonstration that such recourse is desirable to get best results.  The necessity of irrigation depends upon the soil and its natural moisture supply.  On a fine retentive loam, the crop is chiefly made without irrigation, if the plants are all ready to put out in the field as soon as it is safe.  If you are late in the planting, or if the soil is dry or likely to dry before the tubers are grown to good size, irrigation, some time ahead of the need of the plant, is essential.

Sweet Potatoes.