Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-15
STATE CALLS ON
PEOPLE TOSAVE
Store Vegetables Is the Advice
Given by the Officials to
the Housekeeper

Pennsylvania will ahave this year
between twenty-five and thirty-five
million bushels of potatoes grown by
the farmers and the thousands OF
war gardeners who have successfully
entered the producing class follow
ing the call to arms made necessary
by the war, says a bulletin issued by
the State Department of Agriculture.
Much of this great crop will go to
the market as it is harvested on
the farms, but the consumer can
help materially to cut the high cost
of living by preparing for the stor-
age of his winter home supply of
both potatoes and other root veg
etabies.
Secretary of Agriculture Charles
e. Patton urges every consumer to
prepare for the storage of potatoes,
turnips, beets, carrots, cabbage anu
any other roots which may be saved
over the winter use. He advises per-
sons who have been unable to grow
any potatoes or vegetables this sum-
mer to prepare to purchase their
winters supply during the next two
months when such products will be
at their lowest price and says that
every family should have from ten
to twenty-five bushels of potatoes on
hand while farmers should arrange
to store and hold back a portion of
their crop and sale throughout the
year so that there is no shortage in
any community. 1t has been the
common practice during the past ten
years to sell all the potatoes as fast
as they are dug. If the practice is
pursued this year the price will go
far below the cost of production, and
next year farmers will be discour-
aged and neglect planting.
E. B. Dorsett. director of the Bu-
reau of Markets of the Pennsylva-
mia Department of Agriculture. says:
There are several effective meth
DDS of potato storage if suitable cell
lars are not obtainable. A cave can
be made in the side of hill or bank
that will afford excellent storage
facilities. All one needs to do is to
tunnel into the bank, lay up the
sides with stone or cement, protect
ing the roof either with cement or
some support to prevent dirt from
falling and leaving the natural
ground floor. This method is not eX-
pensive and makes an excellent stor-
age place for potatoes or any of the
vegetables.
IF a hillside is not available then
the old-fashioned method of burying
can be practiced. Select dry place
having natural drainage, make a pit
six or eight inches deep, or larger
if many potatoes are desired. Place
the potatoes in the pit in such a
manner as when full 1t should pre-
sent the form of cone. They can
then be covered with loose straw
to a depth of four or SIN inches and
covered with a light covering of
dirt. A ventilator can be placed in
the top of the hill by making tube
out of boards three to four inches
in width. 1T the hill is very large,
an empty nail keg can be used by
placing something over the top to
keep out the storm. AS soon as win
ter sets in more dirt should be put
on, and then the top covered with
stable manure, horse manure being
prefera BILE as it Is warmer. Turnips.
beets and carrots can be stored in
the same manner.
"An effective and simple storage
system for turnips, beets and car
rots is made through burying them
in sand in dirt cellars. Get clean
dry sand and place it in a corner of
your cellar where you desire to store
and bury your turnips,
beets and carrots. They will keep in
good condition, crisp and in their ma
tural state, beets often keeping for
over two years by this method.
Cabbage can readily be stored by
a dry place, digging a
trench wide enough and deep enough
to place two heads side by side, put
ting the face of the head in the
trench, leaving the roots protruding
and standing upward. Cover the
cabbage lightly with straw up to the
roots and then throw loose dirt over
the straw. Sometimes it is advisable
to place two boards along either
side of the trench in order to pro-
tect them against severe storms. An
opening can be left at one end of the
trench in order that cabbage can be
taken out during the winter months.
This can be protected by stuffing of
loose straw or old blankets.