The Dolores star., 1920-01-02
DO
inter fere with eireuaton<

prepared by the United States Depart
meut OF AGriculture.D
In the big battle which he wages
every winter to destroy n portion of
mankinds food stores. Jack Frost
finds the careless shipper of potatoes
an effective ally. Potatoes. sweet and
white. are shipped to market in large
quantities throughout the cold season
and demand thorough protection,
since n touch of frost renders them
practically worthless. While the farm
or himself is not directly responsible
for faulty shipment if he sells to
dealer who does the loading, he Is in
better position to demand square
deal if he understands how to protect
winter consignments properly. II the
crop is being marketed on commits
sion basis the grower is sure to suffer
the brunt Of the losses when the frost
gets in effective work.
The directions for preparing box
car for potato shipments given here
with are in accord with rccommenda-
tions of the bureau of markets, and
apply to winter shipments Of sweet
potatoes destined for northern points,
as well as to white potatoes.
Importance of Circulation.
A stove will warm enough air to pro-
tect car Of potatoes from freezing
even in severe weather, providing the
car lining is built and kept in such Il
condition that the warm air can get
down to the floor and sides where it
is needed. To accomplish this a com
pletc air passage must be formed en-
tirely around the load. When pOta-
toes are loaded in bulk it 10 necessary
to construct what are in effect two
bins, one on either side of the central
area where the stove is placed. if the
shipment is likely to pass through Sc
we're weather. In many cases. of
course. it is entirely safe TO ship with
out artificial heat in the car.
Before constructing the bins. the
walls and ceiling of the car Itself must
be covered with building paper Fol-
lowing this n false floor is laid on sup
ports running lengthwse. thereby Gre
ating air channels 4 to g inches deep,
extending beneath the false floor from
the center of the car to either end
where they connect with vertical air
passages formed by false wills built 4
to 6 inches from the car ends. Likewise,
false walls are built n few inches from
the sides and false door is erected
at one side for n stoveplpe. Bulk
heads are put across the car at either
side of the door to form well for the
stove. These walls. as well as the CEN
ter bulkheads, rise well toward the
ceiling. The bins are lined with pa
per. the same as the car walls. The
false floor supports permit the cool air
to settle below the false floor and to
move toward the base of the stove
where it rises as it is heated and cir
culates towards the end of the car,
between the load and the ceiling.
Material Needed for Lining.
rough estimate of the lumber and
paper required to line an s by Sh by
80 foot car, with doors feet wide is
as follows:
u pieces by inches by "A feet long.
pieces by inches by l6 feet long
1890 square feet of 1-inch lumber, 1G
feet long
225O square feet Of building paper.
The IL "two-by-fours" should be
sawed in half, making &c pieces I feet
long. Six inches should be sawed Off
the length of each of the eight by G
inch pieces. Enough of the 16-foot
boards should be sawed into S-foot
lengths to make a total width of 81
feet of S-foot boards. and other of
these boards sawed into 6-fOOt lengths
to make total width of feet. This
will leave few 4-fOot lengths. One
foot should be sawed off the remaining
1G-foot boards, leaving them Is feet
long. This lumber is all that is re-
quired by an experienced loader to
completely equip a car with false walls
and bulkheads. Detailed directions.
easily understood, are contained in
Markets Document II, issued by the
United States department of agricul-
ture.
Proper Placing Of Load.
The shipper of potatoes must re-
member that they should not be loaded
close enough to the ceiling to block
circulation. There must be n largo
unobstrncted opening for the warm
air to pass down to the floor after it
has spread the length of the ceiling
from the heater. The circulation is
slow and lnbored. and to limit 1t by
piling the sacks so they extend beyond
the false walls causes serious inter.
ference. In placing the sacks on the
false floor next to the walls. core
should be taken to set them a few
inches from these partitions, since