Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-09-07
FARM and HOUSEHOLD.
HARVESTING POTATOES.

matter, hence practical suggestions
on the subject can hardly fail to
prove useful. A very common mis-
take is the one of delaying the
harvesting of the tubers until too
late. The tops have been dead
some weeks, copious growth oil
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 mud. They are then
muddy as they are, thrown into the
cellar or piled in heaps out OF doors,
to be covered with straw and earth
as protection against the freezing
cold of winter. The mud which
adheres to them tends to increase
the tendency to rot, which is further
FASTENED by the warm temperature
of the cellar during warm autumn
days.
y better plan, says Country
Gentleman, is to dig the crop be-
fore the tall rains have reduced the
soil to mud, and f possible before
the rot has commenced its work Of
destruction. For this purpose
early maturing sorts, as for in
stance the Ohio and Hebron, have
the advantage over later varieties.
Being clean and dry, they may be
placed on a broad Slated floor on
the north OF cool side OF an out
house, so situated that the air can
circulate freely from below and
pass up through the potatoes
They should not be placed Ia too
large masses, so as to Obstruct ven
tilation Crops which would rot
badly in wet ground would not
seriously suffer if properly treated
in this way. In some untavorable
seasons, when more than half the
crop was ruined by rotting when
dug, the selected and sound re-
mainder, thoroughly cleaned aud
placed on such Slated floor, has
nearly OF entirely ceased from de-
cay, so that not one bushel in
thirty has suffered. 1t is very i'm
portant, however, that the work be
done throughly and in the best
manner, for if careleSsly performed
1t would be OF comparatively little
use.
When cold weather approaches
the tubers are either removed 10
the cellar intended for them or
turned out of doors in heaps or
pits. When buried, they must he
protected from the adverse infu-
ences of light and frost and means
of ventilation supplied.
To return to the Slated fOors.--
Their effect would be more perfect
if the apartments Of which they
form the floor were separate from
the rest of the building by nom
conducting walls, and access to the
outside controlled by shutters to
the windows. During the heat of
warm days these shutters would he
closed, but opened on cool nights
for the admission OF cold air. la
this way the temper ature may be
kept low all the time, and the
danger of rotting lessened in
autumn or winter, and premature
sprouting prevented in the warm
weather of spring. These views
naturally suggest storage house
such as many large growers build.
When small quantities Of po-
tatoes are kept in ce liars, and only
for family use, the authority quoted
from suggests that the vegetable
apartment IN which they are stored
must be kept separate from ali the
other apartments-from the one
for fruit, or for dairy products, or
for furnace cOal-and be so sitnat-
ed that by closing or opening win
dows a uniformly low temperature
may be secured. \ convenient
place for storing in cellars is IN
large oblong boxes holding twenty
bushels, more or less, having
slated bottoms, and raised several
inches from the cement floor. Po-
tatOes do not dry and shuvel so
readily as apples, and the base
ment should not be a wet apart
ment nor a dirty one. 1t IS hardly
necessary to add that wherever
they are stored, they are to be kept
from the light with a thin covering
of straw or coarse sacking.
Those who would succeed with
potatoes should remember the es-
sential requisites Of harvesting
early before the advent OF mud aud
the rot, handling carefully to pre-
vent bruislng, preserving sufficient
ventilation, whether in heaps out
doors or in cellars or apartments.
These remarks are made rather
in the way Of suggestion than as
LAYING down fixed and unalterable
rules, and we trust they may AID
young cuitivat0rs in the successful
management of their crops.
WeeViI in Grain.
Weevll may he almost If not
wholly prevented by thorough