Vermont State Horticultukal Society 85 



his word because a seller in Canada offered him potatoes a little 

 less. That left me with a carload that I wanted to hurry off 

 before the freezing weather. There was no time for me to haul 

 them to market. I happened to know a fancy grocer in Phila- 

 delphia some 600 miles from where I live. I filled a grape basket 

 with a sample and covered them thoroughly with dark paper 

 and some cloth so no light could get through to them, and sent 

 them to him to test and see if he wanted any more like them. 

 As soon as possible came a dispatch : — "I will take all you have 

 got." 



That has been my experience ; just let the people know, — 

 some discriminating buyer, that you have got something that 

 is A No. I and you will have no trouble in finding a market. 

 I used to manage the storage of potatoes in the city myself. 

 I had them make an absolutely dark room and I put the potatoes 

 in there myself. From there they could be sold all during the 

 winter in a perfectly satisfactory condition. It was a great deal 

 more pleasure to those grocers to sell them and have people 

 come and want more than to sell poor potatoes and hear the 

 customers complain because of poor quality. 



Of course there are many tools and methods that we have 

 used and followed that helped. We bought one of the Aspin- 

 wall planters as soon as they came around. You can plant 

 better by hand, but it is a good planter. If I were going into 

 the business now I would buy a Robbins planter, still the first 

 named planter is a good one. Then we soon found that it cost 

 a good deal of money to dig them by hand ; after a while we 

 got hold of the Hoover ; that did us good work, but if potatoes 

 are in any degree green you must throw them out with a fork. 

 r never did feel quite so proud as when I was seated on a digger, 

 driving four horses, and by just manipulating two or three levers 

 could do the work of 10 or 20 men, and a few years back I used 

 to pay those men to do that work. It was easy, riding under 

 a big umbrella and doing the work of that number of men, — I 

 always believed in doing your work as easily as possible. 



I had hoped one while that we would be able to get some 

 machinery to pick up potatoes. I once went to Michigan to 

 see a machine work, and I found it couldn't distinguish between 

 clods, stones and potatoes. It was not practical. 



One of the little devices that I got up myself was the bushel 

 box. A bushel box had been used, but I made this special size 

 and many thousands of them have been made and sold since. 

 We found them very handy; the dimensions are 13 x 13 x 16 

 inside measurements. The ends are ^ in. thick, }i in. sides 

 and hand holes on the ends ; they are very convenient to take up 

 and hold in front of you. 



