Newport daily independent., 1918-07-01
'PUIATOES R0T 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
 of 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 DO
 tatoes can be seen lying in the ditches near the farm homes. With our coun- 1 try at war and possibility of food
 shortage facing us for the coming win
 ter, it 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. l Several of the farmers who built stor- age houses last fall have written the Agricultural Extension Division, stat. l ing that they had from 300 to 500 bushels of seed potatoes for sale.
 These sold easily for $2 per bushel and
 one farmer said he could easily have
 sold 2,000 bushels at that price if he ndu 6IOWA tuS potdtoCo anu oSOACu l them.
 1 1t matters not whether you are a large grower of sweet potatoes or whether you have only an acre for | home use, small storage house of l from 200 to 300 bushels capacity will easily pay for itself in few years. It is true that, if properly cared for, potatoes can be stored successfully in 1 small quantities in the bank or pit, but it is so hard to get this work done exactly right for all conditions of 1 weather that it is considered by all authorities, to be far better to build | 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 avoid the bruising of the potatoes. Throwing potatoes to a pile across several rows or other rough treatment l is sure to break the skins on them in such a way as to make the entrance l of disease germs much easier. Early ! this spring the writer was in a storage house where some 10000 bushels Of sweet potatoes had been stored over winter. The storage man had han dled all of his crop carefully except l those in one bin-with these he had I used no special care to prevent bruis- | ing. Potatoes in this bin had at leas. e-fourth of the potatoes with decay, 1 while in the other bins not 1 per cent were decaying They had all been in l the same storage house under exactly the same conditions. CD Do not store diseased potatoes. If any signs of dis ease can be seen at digging time it is far better te feed these potatoes to nogs or even throw them away than to place in storage with good potatoes. l They will not only rot themselves 1 but will cause others to rot (3) See
 that the storage house is properly cleaned out and disinfected before placing new crop of potatoes in stor- I age. Use a strong formalin solution l for this purpose and be sure that the
 work is done thoroughly. This should be done some time in advance of the
 storage season. (4) The temperature of the storage house should be at 30 l to 85 degrees F.. when the potatoes are 1 placed in storage and held as near this 1 temperature as possible until the pota- toes are properly cured At the end of this time the temperature should be
 allowed to drop to 50 to 50 degrees F. and held about this point for the re
 mainder of the season. (5) The ven- | tilation of the building must be good, tt least sufficient to carry off the
 moisture as it comes from the pota-
 soes It is best to make the venti-
 lators large, then if only a 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
 4 feet by feet is a very good size
 and has given very general satisfac- ton over the State.
 Build a storage house. Write the Agricultural Extension Divi-
 sion, Old Sstatehouse, Little Rock, Ark. for information and plans.
 KEEP THE HOGS COOL AND FREE |