Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-09-07
HARVESTING POTATOES.



Prove Useful.
Tha harvesting and storing of the po-
tato crop is an important matter, hence
practical suggestions on the subject can
hardly fail to prove useful A very COM
mon mistake is the onoof delaying tho
harvesting of the tubcrs until too late.
The tops have been dead some weeks, IL
copious growth of weeds has taken their
place, the ground has become muddy with
autumn rains, and the potatoes when
thrown out are more or less covered with
aud. They are then, muddy as they arc,
thrown into the cellar or piled in heaps
out of doors, to be covered with straw
and earth us protection against the trccz-
/ ing cold of winter Tho mud which adj
heres to them tends to increase tho ten
dency to rot, which is further FASTENED
by the warm temperature of the cellar
during warm autumn days.
A better plan, says Country Gentleman
is to dig the crop before the fall rains
have reduced the soil to mud and if pos
sible before the rot has commenced it's
work of destruction. For this purpose
early maturing sorts, as for instance the
Ohio and Hebron, have the advantage
over later varieties Being clean and dry,
they may be placed on broad Slated
house, so situated that the air can circu.
late freely from below and T-lss up through
the potatoes. They should not be placed
III too large masses, so rs to obstruct ven
tilation. Crops which would rot badly in
wet ground, would not seriously suffer if
properly treated in this way. In some
untavorabe seasons, when more than half
the crop was ruined by rottng when dug,
the selected and sound remainder, thor
oughly cleaned and placed on such slated
floor, has nearly or entirely ceased from
decay, so that not one bushcl in thirty
has suffered. 1t is very important, how.
ever that the work be done thoroughly
and in the best manner for if carclcssly
performed it would be of comparatively
little use.
When cold weather approaches the
tubcrs are either removed to the cellar
intended for them or turned out of doors
In heaps or pits. When buried, they
must be protected from the adverse iuilu-
enccs Of light and frost and means of
cntilatiou supplied.
To return to the slated floors. Their
! effect would be moro perfect if the apart
/ rcnts of which they form the floor were
/ separate from the ra~t %; tie huiluin" by
non-ccnductipc walls, and access to the
! outside controlled by -nUter, 10 The in.
/ dJUs During the hcat of warm days
/ ticsn shutters wouij bcuIo@cd bat opened
/ on COO. nights for the admission Of cold
/ air. lu tIj- way the temperature may b,
Kept low all the ,,.ic atl tho danger OF
, rotus lr--'uci I'm Hi'uu or winter
. Vul premature spruutM- prevented in The
. warm weather OF spring. These Wow.
| naturally suggest q storage house suCl
as many Ian growers buil.
When small quantities Of potatoes arc
kept in cellars and only Tor family use
the au' hority quoted from suggests that
the vegetable apartment in which they
are stored must be kept separate from al
the other apartments-from the one fol
| fruit, or for dairy products CI for furnace
coal-and be so situated that by closing
or opening windows Il uniformly low tem
perature may be secured. A convenient
place for storing in cellars is i'll large oh
long boxes holding twenty bushels, moro
or less, having Slated bottoms, anl
raised several inches from the cement
floor. Potatoes do not dry and shrivcl 81
readily as apples, and the basement
should not be Il wet apartment nor dirty
one. 1t is hardly necessary to add tha
wherever they are stored, they are to b,
kept from the light with thin covering
of straw or coarse sacling.
Those who would succeed with poto
toes should remember the essentia
requisites of harvesting early before thu
advent of mud and the rot, handling care
fully to prevent bruising preserving tn,
tubers clean and providing sufficient ven
tilation, whether in heaps out doors or il
cellars or apartments.
These remarks are made rather in tn,
way of suggestion than as laying dow
fixed and unaltcrablo rules, and we trus
they may aid young cultivators in tlr
successful management of their crops,