The common or Irish potato does badly in the South, except as an early crop, because the climate is too warm, but where the common potato suffers, the sweet potato thrives. It requires a warm, sunny climate, a long season, and warm, loose soil, with plenty of moisture during growing time, and less during ripening. It is very tender and cannot stand frost. It is grown extensively as far north as the sandy lands of New Jersey. The soil must be rich, loose, and well drained and liberally fertilized with well-rotted manure. Wood ashes will help the growth of the tuber most satisfactorily. Only one variety of sweet potato, the Spanish, is cut and planted like the common potato. All other varieties are grown from “slips,” or, as they are sometimes called, “draws.” A whole potato is laid on a hot-bed and covered with a couple of inches of loose soil or leaf-mould. Very soon it begins to sprout and when the shoots are from three to five inches high, they are broken off next the tuber, and planted. Their roots have already begun to form and these are the “slips.” The same potato or tuber, will give another set of slips if allowed to remain in the ground. In the extreme south no hot-bed is necessary to start the sprouting. Another method of obtaining slips is from cuttings from the ends of the vines. Take cuttings from 10 to 12 inches long, from the earliest planted or the most vigorous vines. Having removed all the leaves except those at the very tip, plant the cutting lying down with only an inch or two of the tip showing. The rows should be about three feet apart and the slips in the row 18 inches apart. The average yield is from 200 to 400 bushels per acre. Sweet potatoes suffer from several fungous diseases which are discussed in New Jersey Experiment Station bulletins on Sweet Potato Culture. Leaf blight may be checked by the use of Bordeaux mixture, but rotation is the cure for tuber crop diseases. FOOTNOTES: [5] Ireland is not really the land of the “praties”; the average yield of Great Britain is higher than of Ireland. CHAPTER XV. BULB CROPS. All bulb crops are hardy, liking cool seasons and moist rich soil with a loose top. As a rule they are seed-bed crops, but are sown early in the open field. They grow from seeds or bulbs and may be raised as main or secondary crops and treated like onions. Their tops are often used for seasoning. LEEKS. To the average American, there is but one important bulb crop, the onion, but the foreign-born use garlic, leek and others also. Of these the leek is the mildest flavored and the best worth knowing. It is grown from seed sown in the early spring, and requires the whole season to reach full development. It produces soft bulbs and thick leaves, both being used for seasoning. The leek is stored green, as celery is, being set in earth in a pit or cellar. GARLIC.