The Portland daily press., 1878-09-25
AGRICULTURAL.
Harvesting Potatoes s.

The potato crop is most important one
in this section, and it having been attacked by
rot this season more than ordinary care
should be taken in harvesting it. A Column
bia Falls correspondent of the Machias Union
says:
Too many little boys, green hands and lazy
men are allowed to harvest our potatoes.
Potatoes should be well assorted when dug.
All the little ones, the pronged ones, and the
cut ones should be put by themselves to be
fed to hogs and neat stock. No cut potatoes
should be allowed with those we intend to
ship. Often the careless digger will spoil the
best potatoes in each hill by cutting with the
hoe. The pronged potato digger is the best
for harvesting potatoes. and the side of the
hill should be entered first. All of the weeds
among potatoes should be dug up when we
dig the potatoes and those having seed should
be burned that the ground may be better for
grain or some other crop another year.
The Germantown Telegraph, good author
ity in such matters, offers some views upon
the best mode of storing which may possibly
be of advantage to some.
To store potatoes properly we have to
guard against heating; for although the po-
tatoes will not absolutely ferment by heat as
comes warm enough to excite any germ fun
gus there may be in the tuber, and this eXha-
lation may be sufficient to cause decay,
which can be communicated to roots in which
no symptom of rot exists. Moisture is favor
able to heating, and hence it is best to have
the potato thoroughly dry before storing, if
any considerable quantity is to be put away
In bulk. Thus, il they are spread on barn
floor or other cool place out of the sun before
nnftjnp in tho rnof.oa1lar fhou will ha cafa
against rotting. When potatoes are perfectly
healthy, there is not SO much necessity for
care in drying. Hundreds of bushels are Of
ten taken at once from the field to the cellar
without any damage whatever resulting; and
it is only in view of the possibility of rot that
we think it advisable to take the extra pre-
caution in drying. 1t is well to note that a
cool shed is best to dry them in, as the tubers
will otherwise absorb more heat than when
they come out of the ground and this is what
we try to avoid.
There is one disadvantage in drying pota-
toes in this way, which is always more or less
connected with dry cellars, namely the great
loss from shrinkage which results. In an av-
erage dry cellar there is often as much as a
loss of twenty per cent in bulk from shrink
age. Thus, one hundred bushels stored away
in place like this in winter, will give but
eighty when taken out for sale in the spring.
There is often as much, and sometimes more,
than the advantage in spring over fall prices,
and is an argument often used to induce
growers to sell their crops as soon as taken
up, instead of keeping them for the spring
rise. But this loss can be wholly avoided
and the roots kept in excellent condition by
careful storing in open ground. A dry place
is to be selected, where the water can run
easily away, and the potatoes laid up in long,
narrow ridges, say about four feet wide and
1On0 q q tho uy1oDfitv m q cd do
mands. After the whole has been collected
together, thin layer of straw, only thick
enough to keep the earth from falling in
among the potatoes, is to be put along the
sides and over the tubers, and thin layer oil
soil, just enough to keep the straw in place,
is thrown over. 1t is better not to throw
more earth than this over at first, as the nat
ural heat of the potatoes will accumulate,
while it is the object to let 1t pass rapidly
away, AS soon as there is danger. OF frost
then the potatoes should be covered thickly
with soil, as the frost is certain to penetrate.
In this way the potatoes ara preserved at a
temperature but little above the freezing
point, and thus guarded against heating much
and at the same time there is little loss from
evaporation; great point gained when the
bushel measure is brought out in the spring.
The great objection to this old-fashioned
and excellent plan is that we cannot get at
them we'll in the winter season; but we are
only recommending it where they are re-
quired to be kept over till spring. Where
they are needed before that time, a cellar is
almost Indispensable. Another objection is
the extra labor which open-air banking takes.
Perhaps the saving of ten or twenty per cent
may be fair offset to this !; but at any rate
those who have good root-cellars will gener-
ally run the risk in preference to the labor OF
the open ground. But we have referred to
the excellence of the plan because some have
no good root-cellars, and others who have
may yet fear rot and be glad to take the best
precautions to guard against accident.
Only those, however, which are apparent-
ly sound, should be chosen for the outdoor
practise, for those which are certainly dis
eased will be better preserved by an OCCASION
al sorting over during the winter season.