Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-07-18
POTATOES ROT BY
 IMPROPER STORAGE
Storage Houses Should Be Built to Keep Your Sweet Potatoes To
 Best Advantage.
By J. s. Knox, Horticulturist, Exten- sion Division, U of A.

Because of improper storage many
 or our farmers lost their whole crop
 of sweet potatoes this past winter.
 That this is true is evidenced by the
 fact that many bushels of rotten po-
 tatoes can be seen lying in the ditches
 near the farm homes. With our coun-
 try at war and possibility of food
 shortage facing us for the coming win ter, 1t is necessary that every possible
 effort be made to stop this unneces-
 sary waste of this important food crop. In some cases this past winter individual farmers lost enough sweet potatoes to have paid for small stor-
 age house of 500 bushels capacity
 Several of the farmers who built stor-
 age houses last fall have written the
 Agricultural Extension Division, stat
 ing that they had from 300 to 500
 bushels of seed potatoes for sale
 These sold easily for $z per bushel and
 one farmer said he could easily have
 sold 2,000 bushels at that price if he
 had grown the potatoes and stored
 them.
 It matters not whether you are a large grower of sweet potatoes or whether you have only an acre for ho1ne use, a small storage house of from 200 to 300 bushels capacity will easily pay for itself in a few years. It Is true that, if properly cared for, potatoes can be stored successfully in small quantities in the bank or pit. but it is so hard to get this work done exactly right for all conditions Of weather that it is considered hy all | authorities to be far better to build
 a storage house where conditions such
 as temperature, moisture, etc, can be regulated as desired.
 The storage house alone will not in sure our potatoes against decay, but we must also observe carefully the fol lowing factors: CD At the time of
 harvest use every possible care to l avoid the bruising of the potatoes. Throwing potatoes to pile across several rows or other rough treatment is sure to break the skins on them in such way as to make the entrance
 of disease germs much easier. Early this spring the writer was in a storage house where some 10000 bushels Of sweet petatoes had been stored over
 winter. The storagH man had han dled eM Qf Hisa crop carefully except
 thoSe in 6la b1R-with these he had us{d m Special Sare to prevent bruis- in9 a5atnes infhis bin had at least onS our the potatoes with decay,
 wh{ ia Ter bins not 1@per cent
 wer6{pp They had all been in | the safne*ftfage house under exactly the same Conditions. (2) Do not store diseased potatoes. If any signs of dis ease can be seen at digging time it is far better to feed these potatoes to hogs or even throw them away than to place in storage with good potatoes. They will not only rot themselves but will cause others to rot. (3) See that the storage house is properly cleaned out and disinfected before pldCluS ueW CIOp Ol POLdtOcS III SLUT age. Use strong sfhfmalin solution
 for this purpose and be- that the
 work is done thor3ughly ThiA should
 be done some tinde in advancs of the
 storage season. The tempsrature
 of the storage hoYse should be at 30
 to 85 degrees F. when the. potatoes are
 placed in storage and held aa near this temperature as possible untiFth pota-
 toes are properly cured. At the end of this time the temperatNye should be allowed to drop to 50 t6@ degrees F.
 and held about this point for the re- mainder of the season. (5) The ven cilation of the building must be good, l it least sufficient to carry off the moisture as it comes from the pota- l toes. It is best to make the venti- lators large, then if only small circu
 lation is desired the ventilators can
 be partly closed. (6) Do not make the
 bins too large. A bin that is feet by
 feet by 4 feet is very good size
 and has given very general satisfac- 1 tion over the State.
 Build storage house: Write