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. What kind of soil and climate does it take to grow sweet potatoes, and can I grow them in any part of Contra Costa county, and about what time is the best to plant them? Sweet potatoes do best in a light warm loam which drains well and does not bake or crust by rain or irrigation. Sprout the tubers in a hot-bed or cold-frame in February and break off the shoots and plant as soon as you are out of danger by frost. Sweet potatoes are more tender than common potatoes. There are places in Contra Costa county where they do well, though some parts of the county do not have enough summer heat. Sweet Potatoes Between Fruit Trees.