George Washington Carver: A National Agricultural Library Digital Exhibit

1924

National Agricultural Library

Eleven Southern States produce sugary, moist-fleshed sweet potatoes so unlike the dry, mealy varieties shipped from the northeastern section of the producing area that they are recognized as a distinct class or type on the principal markets of the United States. For many years the sweet potato has been the most important vegetable crop in the South, but only in recent years have southern growers and shippers undertaken to market an appreciable amount of the crop outside of the producing areas, especially in the large cities of the North and East.

They have succeeded in distributing southern sweet potatoes* in practically all of the important car-lot markets of the country, but they have experienced many difficulties. The moist-fleshed varieties produced in this group of States are no more peculiar to the territory than are the marketing problems of southern growers and shippers. Many of them have overestimated the demand for their product and underestimated the need for economical production and better marketing practices.

Marketing Southern-Grown Sweet Potatoes