Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-05
producing a large amount of graz
ing next summer

curing house plan, is it absolutely nee
essary to keep the fire going both night
and day in order to get a good cure?
1t is quite expensive to handle them
this way with the small amount I can
raise. Would it be cheap enough to be
practical S6n Ate to cure in small house, 100
to 20O-bushel capacity, with an oil stove
for heating?
If it is worth while attempting to
cure sweet potatoes at all it is
worth while doing the work so as
TO insure the preservation of the
potatoes thus stored. To do this
certain fundamental rules must be
followed out very carefully.
In the storage of sweet potatoes
the most practical thing to do is to
| put them in house where the temp
erature can be controlled by ventila.
| ton and by the use of regulated heat.
A sweet potato storage house is not
q costly structure to put up unless
| II is improperly built. In that event
| it is practically worthless no mat
Ter what it cost.
In storing sweet potatoes the fol-
lowing points must be taken into
consideration. DO not dig them until
they are thoroughly mature. Handle
them with the utmost care so as to
prevent their being bruised or in
jured. Dry well on putting into
the house. A stove should be used
for this purpose. 1t is essential to
|
uniformly around 100 degrees Fab
renheit as possible for 10 days. This
| IS aN matter of the utmost Importance.
changes in temperature are undesir-
able and likely to prove harmful.
While it is a difficult matter to
with closed in Russian stove this
can be accomplished quite we'll
and without as much labor as you
seem to anticipate. In other words,
If the fire is regulated late at night,
say at 10 or II o'clock, and early in
is no reason why a sufficiently uni
form temperature should not be
maintained to meet the requirements
of the situation. There is only a
best and if one can save the potatoes
there is enough at stake to justify
the labor and discomfort which may
be involved.
A storage house properly con-
structed and handled will preserve
so to SO per cent of the potatoes
harvested before frost, and it should
not cost in excess of zoe per bushel
to store them. They should have an
added value of at least soc per
bushel next April. 1t should also
enable the owner to keep the greater
good condition. You should certainly
be able to keep at least 60 per cent
more potatoes through the medium
of properly constructed storage
house than you would by following
methods previously used. The fact
that we produce eleven or twelve
million bushels of sweet potatoes
in Georgia ana that nearly half of
them rot every year is an evidence
of our need for a better and more
practical method of storing and
handling them than we have pursued
in the past.
have been dried out and cured as in
Remember that after the potatoes
Dictated they should be kept at a
temperature of As degrees, or as near
that as possible. Shutting them up
or allowing the temperature to run
up or down is to be avoided. Po-
tatoes need ventilation after they
have been cured as much as they dc
before. In cold climates or in eX-
IRENE weather it may be necessary
to build a little fire so as to pre-
vent the temperature from falling
below As degrees. In many localitie.
and under existing farm condition"
the trouble will be to ventilate the
house sufficiently to keep the temp
orature as low as desirable.
Our experience and knowledge OIL
the method of curing and handling
sweet potatoes by the use of storage
houses is such as to justify US In
strongly recommending this method
to your attention.
G.. w. L., Carrollton, Ga, writes: /
have a fine watermelon patch that has
the wilt, and the plants are beginning
TO die / would like to know If there
is anything 1 can do to check the trou-
BILE
There is little you can do to help
the situation in your melon HELD
|, You might cut off the branches or
pull. up and burn the affected plants
-Nx.I.. i rNf r hn
disease There is no remedy for this
trouble 1t has been studied for a
long time and there is only one
method of combating il that offers
any promise and that is to use seed
selected from plants resistant to
this trouble. You will find in every
field where a great many melons die
that some live right on through the
season, growing and thriving under
conditions which have resulted in
the destruction of the plants sur
rounding them. Select the seed care
fully from these plants and continue
this practice from year to year and
you will develop a strain with q
high degree Of immunity to this
disease.
The wilt disease is not we'll under
stood. 1t is caused by a fungus
! which gains access to the roots of
the plants, grows up through the
vines, family choking the water-car-
rying cells and so causing the death
of the plant. lis development is
favored by conditions such as we
have had in this section of the state
and probably you have experience
the same recently. For instance,
here at Athens we have had a pro-
tracted dry spell of several weeks,
| the weather being exceedingly warm
This condition has been followed by
q week Of almost continuous rain
fall. AS q result, tomatoes, water
| melons, musk melons and other
plants subject to the wilt disease are
| now dying rapidly. 1t is thus that
these certain changes in climatic con-
ditions, for that is what they amount
to, produce a physiological condition
in the plants which causes this dis
ease to develop and become so sud-