The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1904-12-20
CONDUCTED BY b. w. KILGORE,
IRISH POTATOES.
m.-Digging, Keeping and Marketing the Crop.

grown. In it's proper place 1 should have said
that it is not best to have the young potatoes
grow in contact with strong barn-yard manure
that is not thoroughly pulverized with the soil,
as it makes the skin rough and they may become
scabby and rot.
I have never lost a crop of early potatoes by
not digging till September, where the land was
we'll self-drained and the weeds and high grass
kept down. When either early or late potatoes
are raised it should be dry as possible and let them
dry off in the sun part of a, day. They may be
taken out with hoes, first turning a furrow away
from each side of the row, which makes them very
easy to pull out with a hoe, or by a third turrow
with a large shovel pillow the work of gathering is
made easier. Store the potatoes where they Will
be in a dry, cool, dark place, so they will not be
likely to rot, nor shrivel, nor loose color or flavor.
Clean straw, fodder blades or other nice covering
will keep them in the dark, for they should be
spread out on a floor and not heaped up or in a
bin. When cold, frosty weather comes, store them
in a cellar, cave or other place where there is no
danger of frost in extreme cold weather reaching
them.
They will keep perfectly "holed up as follows
Scrape the TOP soil six or eight inches deep from
a round spot large enough to hold, not over fifty
bushels in a pile, emptied down on the centre,
forming it round. Throw them up neatly from all
round the bottom. Lay three inches of straw
wheat or rye preferred-up and down on the po-
tatoes. Commencing at the bottom, build up the
earth against the straw all round one foot in
thickness, and thicker on top of the cave. When
through throwing up dirt, there should be a trench
all round, with it's bottom a little lower than the
bottom of the potatoes inside. This is as it
should be, and be careful to open a drain from
the bottom of this off so that all the water will
quickly drain off and not stand around the pota-
toes, or they will be sure to rot. A large sheaf
of rye straw, or corn fodder stalks, or even pine
boughs, firmly tied at one end and set down on top,
spread all round the cave, will prevent dirt wash
ing away and help keep the potatoes dry.
The spring market is generally best, and pota-
toes kept in this way look nice and will sell we'll
if taken from the hole before they sprout any.
Also for home use, they should be taken up and
dried in the sun a day, then put in a dry, dark
place to keep from sprouting, and if they are to
last till new potatoes come, they should be summed
as often as they seem to sprout and the sprouts
rubbed off. In this way they keep at their best,
and farmers deserve the best at home. The small
unmarketable ones should be sorted from the
large ones when dug up and kept for seed or to
cook and feed. When fed with corn or cotton
seed meal, they are as useful to chickens, pigs or
COWS as wheat bran and oats.
When properly cooked-or raw to some stock
the potato may form an important part of a we'll
balanced ration for man or beast every day in
the year. To get the potato in it's excellence, bake
it. Next boil them quickly with skins on, setting
them on a hot fire in cold water; when thorough.
ly done peel them, and shred, mash or slice, and
serve in any desirable form, but most people pee
and then cook in various ways.
The lower South, by planting in January and