21
The leading market crops, as seen from the table, are Cotton and Tobacco, and the culture of both is rapidly extending, and after them the bread crops, Maize and Wheat, are most largel} 7 cultivated, and to some extent exported. Potatoes are most abundant in the mountain section, where they are of the finest quality, and might be produced in immense quantities, and doubtless will be as soon as railroad facilities shall bring them better within the reach of markets. The Sweet Potato is a crop of great importance, especially in the eastern section, where it yields immensely, growing well even on thin soils. The crop of 1870 was just half that of 1860, and four times that of the Irish potato, whose place it supplies. Its chemical analysis, given in the U. S. Department of Agriculture Report, 1869, is, for a dried sample, as follows:
SWEET POTATO.
IRISH POTATO.
W ater,
Cellulose,
Starch,
Albumen
Sugar,
Fat,
Ash,
7.65
6.75
65.29
1.21
14.83
0.81
3.15
7.95
4.14
63.47
11.70
7.57
1.26
3.91
The analysis of the Irish Potato given in a parallel column, shows the points of difference: the sweet potato containing more starch, cellulose and (especially) sugar, and the Irish exceeding in fat and especially albumen. It is very much used, and found very profitable for fattening hogs, and is latterly steamed and dried by machinery, and ground into flour for export. In addition to the products above set down as the most important, the Census tables show that a great many other articles are produced in considerable quantities, enough to show the adaptations of the climate and soil, if the energies of the people were not directed mainly to the production of two or three market crops. Among these may be enumerated Sugar, (both cane