Southern Planter. 1843
SWEET POTATO.
Mr. Editor... I have been successful in keeping the sweet potato, and I know of several others, whose success has been greater than my own, by pursuing the same method.
The great danger is, from the confinement of the moisture which arises from the potato after it is dug. Indeed, for some weeks after they are housed, the “sweating,” as it is called, is very great; and is always more or less, as the season has been wet or dry before they were dug. This moisture must be allowed to escape; and if it does not go off spontaneously, artificial means must be used to expel it.
The best way is to have the house or cellar kept open for some weeks until this evaporation ceases — and gradually to diminish the ventilation until the potato has been well cured, or ceases to sweat. They will become moist frequently in the winter, spring and summer, in which case, they must be smoked — that is to say, a parcel of coals must be put in a dutch oven, or something of that kind, with some small pieces of wood (chips are used by us) and this placed in the cellar or house where it should remain until the fire goes out, shutting the door close. You will find the moisture is soon expelled, and the potatoes are dry. It would be best to have this done every day or two, as long as they last—certainly, every day when the weather is moist or cold. These two cardinal objects should never be lost sight of—to keep them dry, and moderately warm.— An excess of moisture, or cold will certainly destroy them: the smoke and fire will be found to be adequate to these ends—if attended to every day they need it.
My friend, Col. William R. Baskervill, of Mecklenburg, keeps them in large quantities, for family use, for years. I have eaten potatoes at his house, I think, fully two years old. I believe that he has had old ones on hand when the new crop was housed, for many years past.
This plan was introduced by an old man in Mecklenburg [County, Virginia], some thirty or forty years ago, [c1800] who never failed to keep his potatoes; and it has been slowly adopted in that neighborhood, until it has been established by the invariable success of the practice.
The old fashioned potato cellar is preferred, dug under a house which does not leak, and where fire is usually kept—but the plan will as well apply to any other place — houses [Sweet Potato House] built expressly for that purpose, no doubt, would succeed just as well; but fire and smoke must then be more abundantly and oftener applied. Where the bulk of the potatoes is large, it would be well to have small places in the bulk so arranged that the moisture could escape from them—for instance, if several hundred bushels were together, stakes should be driven down in a circular form, in two or three places in the thickest part of the bulk, so as to secure an open space or funnel for the moisture to escape; and in each of these funnels it would be well to introduce a sew and chips, when needed.
The sum total of the whole secret is, to keep them dry, and to keep them moderately warm ; and this being done, they can be preserved until they can be disposed of as the owner may desire.
E.B. Hicks. Lawrenceville, Brunswick [County, VA], June 5, 1843
Southern Planter. Richmond July, 1843. V3, no. 7. p152-153
Farmers' Bulletin. 1901
Sweet Potato... In nearly all parts of the United States it must be treated as an exotic, and where the winters are long and severe the question of storing the tubers becomes very important.
In sections where frosts never penetrate the ground more than a few inches, sweet potatoes are stored in mounds on well-drained land, and covered with leaves, straw, or cornstalks, and, as cold weather approaches, a blanket of earth is added. A temporary roof of boards is sometimes placed over the mounds to shed the rain. In some places low huts are built of logs and slabs and covered with earth. These methods are primitive and unsatisfactory, and when losses are considered, they are expensive. They are still commonly practiced south of the Potomac River, though some of the more enterprising growers are adopting modifications of the methods now employed in
Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and other sections where sweet potatoes are stored in large quantities for winter and spring markets.
In the southern Piedmont region sweet potatoes are sometimes stored in caves, natural or artificial, and with good results. These methods have been in use at the South for generations without essential change.
It was an old custom at the North, where small patches of sweet potatoes were cultivated for home use, to use them freely in the fall, and at the approach of winter pack a choice remnant in boxes or barrels with chaff or sand, and give them a safe place in the kitchen loft close to the chimney, for use only on special occasions or as a contribution to the Christmas feast of a neighbor or friend.
Farmers' Bulletin. United States Dept. of Agriculture. 1901
Sweet potatoes cooked in coals. RevWar image then on Confederate five dollar bill. Blog postHERE
Potato Houses UK and US HERE
Root Cellars in America by James Gage. Many pictures from his book HERE
First picture - potatoes at CCC camp in Wyoming. HERE
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