St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1920-03-27
POTATO HOUSE
A BIG PLAN
FOR THIS
YEAR
Sweet Potato Storage An
nounced To Be a
Success.
NEXT, YEARS CROP
EXPECTED TO BE BIG
Potatoes Thus Held Bring
the Highest Market
Prices.
By Karl Treen.

Inc sweet potato storage house at
Covington, operated by the 'Associa-
tion of Commerce. Is 8 success this
year. 1t is a demonstration of the
best method of saving the crop from
fall when the price Is low until in
spring when it is good. Plans are
ON foot to erect larger house here
this summer to take care OF the larg-
or crop to be planted this year.
The hrst step now Is to get all tho
farmers who expect to furnish US
potatoes to not plant this years po-
tato crup where last years crop of
potatoes was, and to plant pure Porto
Rican variety, and to disdnfect the
seed before bedding, or to get seed
or draws" from the Covington AS
ISOLATION OF Commerce that are dis
ease free.
Potato eyed may be disinfected by
solution of one-quarter pint 40 per
cent commercial formaldehyde in
1912 gallons Of water.
These instructions wore given in
The Farmer several weeks ago.
Farmers wanting slips or draws
should mako application now. Sse
advertisement in this issue.
The idea is prevalent that yams
cured in a storage house will not
germinate. This ig erroneous. They
are beginning to sprout in the house
now. This does not damage them,
however. The temperature for cur
ing is only IS degrees. This Is only
summer heat. Ventilation is more
important than heat. Dryness is es-
sential. These three factors cure
the yams. The temperature must be
regular, honce the necessity of dead
air" space in the walls.
ANY one wishing 1t will be given a
bulletin on disinfecting, production,
The shrinkage due to loss of mois-
ture is about ten per cent in the stor-
age houses. Potatoes in bank loose
about that much in FIVE months; In
the house they lose 1t In the fourteen
day curing process. This closes the
pores of the potatoes and toughens
the skin. thus preventing rot spores
from entering the potatoes, and even
arrestiug any rot already started.
Loss from rot usually runs about
one per cent, but in many houses
his year the loss has been much
greater than this. This was the case
in the Covington house. The spread
of the rot disease over the state Is
responsible for these larger losses.
In addition to this, the loss in the
Covington shouse was increased be-
cause the farmers did not get their
crates before digging and thus avoid
handling and housing the potatoes
so much, but dug them and later gos
the crates. They did this In spite Of
the fact that the Association Of Com
merce urged them to do it the other
way. The potatoes came with some
too small or too large, despite the
dimensdons sent out to the growers.
and this necessitated handling the
stock again at the house to re-grade
it. The principal reason OF the ab-
normal loss was the fact that from
the time the house was opened up
and the potatoes commenced to come
| in, until the house was closed, 25
days elapsed. The farmers respond
ed too slowly. Even then the house
was not yet filed.
These conditions will not exist this
year. 1t was q new thing last year.
Farmers had not expected 1t. They
will have been planning for 1t q full
year by this fall. The rules known
| by the Association OF Commerce to
insura success will be rigidly enforc-
ed this fall.