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A Word for Sweet Potatoes.
Among the provision crops which
we can, and all of us ought to raise
upon our farms, there is not one
which we can grow at less expense
and is more profitable than the sweet
potato; and yet so absorbed are we
by the almighty cotton, we pay little
attention to it, and few of us do more
than raise a few bushels in some
spare corner, enough to carry us
barely to Christmas.
I am entirely of the opinion so
often expressed in the columns of the
Farm and Home, that no farmer can
be really prosperous who does not
produce upon his place everything
necessary for the support of his family
and his stock, groceries alone ex¬
cepted. But which of us—how many
farmers in a hundred, take all the
Southern States—raises more than a
scanty supply of corn and a few bun¬
dles of poor oats ? It is beyond all
question true that corn is the most
expensive stock feed that can be
grown, and wc raise no other. Corn
and fodder arc almost the sole food
of our work animals the year rouud,
and if we make an effort to raise a
few hogs for meat, corn is the only
food we give them after we take them
up to fatten. Every reflecting man
must sec that this is the poorest
kind of economy, and those who
have tried them know that oats arc a
better and a cheaper feed for work¬
ing stock than corn, and that they
can be raised for onc-third of the cost
of corn. Eor fattening hogs, sweet
potatoes are very nutritious, and cost
less than half the price of corn, and
consequently the meat would cost
half the price of corn-fattened meat.
I do not give my hogs one grain of
corn beyond what is necessary to
harden the meat just before killing
time, and I have as good meat and
more of it than most of my neighbors.
Sweet potatoes, after taking up,
goubers, aud the run of the pea-fields
just before, are all I give my hogs.
A sweet potato crop can be made
with very little labor. After the
ground is prepared and the slips
planted, one scraping down with the
hoe, then, soou after, a plowing, a
second plowing when the vines begin
to run, and then a hilling up with
the hoe, arc all the work.
Unless the soil be naturally rich,
let it bo made so by free-handed ap¬
plication of manure, if a good crop
of sweet potatoes are expected- The
best land for them is what is called a
sandy loam. Let this bo well ma¬
nured, broadcast, if practicable ;
if not, in the hill or drill, and let it be
well pulverized by frequent deep
plowings.
The idea that sweet potatoes can¬
not be kept over Winter is not true.
They can be easily kept if we only
know how and will take the trouble.
I will tell my way of keeping them
in another piece, perhaps for the
next number of the Farm and
Home. When I sat down to write,
I intended only to say a word for
sweet potatoes, and encourage the
Southern farmers to give them more
attention, to plant more of them and
to plant them better, because, though
I do not claim to be much of a proph¬
et, I see that provision crops are go
ing to get the go-by this year, and I
want to do what I can to check
this folly if I can. I am as snre as I
am of my existence that if we do as
we did in 1870, and obtain the same
results, we are going to be a bank¬
rupt people.— Ah-Sin, in Ex.
Columbia Co.. Teun., March 19,
1872.
Things Worth Knowing.
Light Without Matches. — The
Paris Figaro gives the following
method of obtaining light instantane¬
ously, without the use of matches, and
without danger of setting things on
fire: Take an oblong phial of the
whitest and clearest glass, put in it a
piece of phosphorous about the size
of a pea, upon which pour some olive
oil heated to the boiling point, filling
the phial about onc-third full, and then
seal the phial hermetically. To use
it, remove the cork and allow’ the air
to enter the phial, and then rccork it.
The whole empty space in the bottle
will then become luminous, and the
light obtained will be equal to that of
a lamp. As soon as the light grows
weak, its power can be increased by
opening the phial and allowing a
fresh supply of air to enter. In Win¬
ter it is sometimes necessary to heat
the phial between the hands to increase
the fluidity of the oil. Thus prepared,
the phial may be used six months —
This contrivance is now used by the
watchmen of Paris in all magazines
where explosive or iuflammable mate¬
rials are stored.
Lighting Fire in a, Stove .—Many
persons have noticed the extreme dif¬
ficulty encountered in lighting the fire
in a stove, especially on a still, damp
morning. The stove at first won’t
draw, even vigorous “blowing” will
not suflice; and then when it does
start, it is with a sort of explosion or
rush of air, which fills the room with
smoke and gas, oftentimes puffing the
unpleasant fumes into the face of the
operator. This trouble is caused by
the difficulty encountered in overcom¬
ing the inertia of the long column of
air in the pipe or chimney, by the
small column of air that can be forced
up through the interstices of the wood
and coal at the bottom of which the
fire is kindled. All this may be rem¬
edied by simply putting a few shavings
or bits of dry paper on the top of the
wood or coal, and first lighting that;
it immediately bursts into a blaze,
because the air has perfectly free access
to it from all sides, the heated air
forces its way into the chimney, and
establishes there an upward current.
The match can then be applied to the
kindling under the fuel, which will
readily light, and if dry bursts into a
brisk blaze.
Estimate of Farm Labor .—The
average estimate of labor in farm work
may be taken as follows: A man will
turn over and mix manure in the heap
thirty cubic yards a day, or from one
and a half to two tons. He can fi 1
into a cart from the heap some twenty
four cubic yards a day, and spread it
upon the surface of the laud from the
heaps at the rate of about ten to fif¬
teen cubic yards a day, according to
its condition, the distance between the
heaps being a rod. A man can dig
and fill into a cart ten cubic yards of
cbalk, twelve of strong clay, fifteen of
light loam, and fourteen of strong
loam. He cen spread of slaked lime
eight tons per day. One and a quar¬
ter to one and a he If acres of meadow
grass oan be mown in a day by one
man; of wheat, by the sickle, half an
acre; by the scythe, two acres. A
man can thrash out five quarters of
corn by the flail in a day. An acre of
laud can be dug by the spade by a
man in fourteen to twenty-one days.
To Keep Hams in Summer .—
There are a number of modes given
to keep bams through the warm sea
son free from the attacks of insects—
Some bag them and whitewash the
bags, which is troublesome and some¬
what expensive; some cover them
with dry wood ashes aud pack them
in barrels; some pack them in barrels
and cover thoroughly with pine shav¬
ings; but we think the best plan of
all, and certainly the least expensive
with all who have a smoke house, and
every farmer should have a good one
is to keep the hams hung up in the
smoke house, which should be kept
perfectly dark at all times. We have
eaten hams so kept two years old,
and they were among the best we ever
tasted. Uniform darkness is a com¬
plete protection against the attack of
insects .—Germantown Telegraph.
Cure for Dandruff. —Mr. John L.
Davis, in the Journal of Pharmacy,
asserts (having fully tested it in his
own case) that a preparation of one
ounce of sulphur and one quart of
water, repeatedly agitated during in¬
tervals of a few hours, and the head
saturated every morning with the
clear liquid will, in a few weeks,
remove every trace ot dandruff from
the scalp, aud the hair will become
soft aud glossy. He says: “I do not
pretend to explain the viodus operan
di of the treatment, for it is well
known that sublimed sulphur is al¬
most or wholly insoluble, and the liq¬
uid used was destitute of ta.-te, color,
or smell. The effect speaks for itself.’
The J erusalem Artichoke.
A correspenpent over the signa¬
ture of Gray Beard, in the Ohio
Farmer, says:
Why do our farmers neglect to
cultivate this very valuable vegeta
able? From the crown of its head to
the tip of its nethermost root, it is
valuable. Cattle will devour thd
stock and leaves with a vim tint tells
how palatable they are, provided they
are cut and cured like other fodder.
The roots arc excellent for cattle,
hugs or bor.-es, and make very fine
pickles. Jt is very true that once in
the ground it is next to impossible to
eradicate them. But then a vegetable
that grows so luxuriantly year after
year without tb .rouble and expem-e
of re seeding itself the ground ought to
commend to more general
favor. It will produce more than
twice as many bushels per acre as the
potato, and neither roots in the ground
nor invites that terrible pest the
potato bug. It can be dug or plowed
out at any time wbc-n the ground June is
not frozen, from September devote to
We advise every farmer to an
acre to their production. And in
doing so, we beg ot you not to let
your fears of injuring the crop or
wasting your substance prevent manuring you
from plowing deeply and
heavily. Plant in rows two feet
apart each way, an eye or a bit of
the root in a place, and it youi
grouud is half decent, never you fear
that the crop will not come m due
season and pay you abundantly too.
It is the only vegetable but the
Canada thistle that needs but one
seed time to produce a succession ot
harvests, or which flourishes all the
better for having a break plow Spring. iuu
through its bed every
There arc several varieties ot the
Jerusalem artichoke, in which some
claims to distinguish a very great dif¬
ference. Wc have tried all of these
and for our own part we “can t most
always tell tother from which, ’ but
then we have used them only after
they were saturated with vinegar,
while others have gone so far as to
serve them upon the table as they
would potatoes. W e have no doubt
they are as nutritious and healthy as
the potato. Cattle, horses sheep and
hogs thrive even better upon them
than upon the potato.
------------- +♦ + - - —•
Clover at the South .— Mr. Edi¬
tor: The most inveterate doubter as
to the possibility of raising clover in
the cotton States would be fully per¬
suaded and abandon the controversy
if he could sec the clover patches in
all their present luxuriant growth in
the counties of Monroe, Pike, and
SpauldiDg, in this State. Captain
Lampkin’s clover, near Forsyth, is as
fine as any I ever saw in Virginia,
Marylaud or Kentucky, and will, I
doubt not, yield from three to four
tons of cured clover to the acre. It is
now (May 1) considerably over knee
high all over the patch, and stands
as thick as it is possible for it to
stand. The land is not naturally rich,
and the sun is about as not in Forsyth
as it is in any part of the cotton belt.
I wish all who say that “clover is no
account for the South,” and who buy
Northern hay when fodder “gives
out,” would come and see this clover.
It would prove to them that they do
not know as,much as they think they
know, and might possibly induce them
to spend a little of the money they
now pay for bales of Northern weeds
and brush, in raising an abundance
of fine clover hay of their own. One
example of this kind is worth a dozen
book farmers. Here is proof positive
that clover .can be raised successfully
at* the South, and that it will pay
handsomely. If anybody doubts, let
him write to Captain Lampkin, and
he will satisfy him. IF., in Ex.
Milner, Ga., May 1, 1872.