The New Student's Reference Work/Sweet Potato

Sweet Pota′to, an edible, sugary vegetable, the tuberous root of a vine-like plant, grown largely in the southern states of the Union and in tropical and semitropical countries. It is also known as the sugar-yam. The sweet potato is rich in food-constituents (sugar and starch), the extent of its cultivation in this country being annually about 50 million bushels. Besides their use, cooked or canned, for the table the sweet potato is also fed to farm-animals; it is grown best in sandy or loose soils, and is a staple crop in the south.