94 



years. He stated that his average loss by banking his 

 potatoes for the past twenty-five years had been 75 per 

 cent and that he had saved more than enough the first 

 year in the storage house to pay for it. He also stated 

 that the house was worth its cost because of the in- 

 creased richness and sweetness of the cured potatoes. 

 The results of the cooperative experiments with Mr. 

 J. A. Cullars of Auburn, as recorded in Table II, Part 4, 

 show a total loss of banked potatoes in 1914-15. In 

 1915-16 he built a small house holding one hundred 

 bushels. The house was not properly ventilated for 

 the first few days during curing, and this probably ac- 

 counts for a part of his loss of ten percent from decay. 

 However, this loss is small when compared with the 

 loss of 80 percent occurring in banks. His average 

 loss for two years by banking was 90 percent as com- 

 pared with 6 percent loss in his storage house. Mr. 

 Cullars stated that even if the percent of loss were the 

 same, the house was worth its cost because of the better 

 quality of the cured potatoes. 



STORAGE ROT 



Sweet potatoes are subject to at least two types of 

 decay in the storage house; Soft Rot (Rhizopus nigri- 

 cans Ehr.) and Dry Rot (Diaporthe batatis (E. & H.) 

 Hart and Field). If the potatoes are properly cured 

 there is practically no danger of decay from Soft Rot. 

 If they are over-cured there is danger of Dry Rot. 



It should be stated at this time that the potatoes 

 stored in these experiments were not sorted at gather- 

 ing time. The small tubers and cut and bruised tubers 

 were all stored together without sorting. If the small 

 tubers and strings had been discarded, the decay would 

 probably have been reduced to a mere fraction of that 

 recorded, because in no instance was decay found on 

 a tuber that did not show a cut or a bruise. If only 

 sound marketable potatoes are put in a bin and they 

 are properly cured, the loss from rots will be negligible. 



LOSS OF WEIGHT IN CURING 



One hundred and twenty (120) pounds of Triumph 

 potatoes were selected froin the field when dug No- 

 vember 10th, 1915, placed in the storage house and a^ 

 careful record was kept of their loss in weight. 



