REPORT OF GREENE COUNTY HORTICULTDRAL SOCIETY. 153 



raise seed for the next sprirg; and in no case plant those of the first 

 crop if second crop can be procured. The first crop of early varieties 

 ehouid be put upon the market at once, or if it is desirable to hold them 

 over for winter or spring use they may be kept free from sprouts, and 

 in excellent condition by treating according to previous directions and 

 the following, with regard to 



STORAGE AND PRESERVATION. 



I have already given some ideas, and it only remains to give some 

 instructions with regard to the construction of suitable apartments for 

 storage, which should be somewhat after the order of cool storage for 

 fruit, only the temperature should never be permitted to fall below 

 freezing. A good storage apartment for the potato can be constructed 

 by digging a pit eight or ten feet wide and eight feet deep and as long 

 as desirable, which wall up and turn an arch of brick or stone with four 

 inch equare flues for ventilation through the arch about six feet apart 

 and high enough to extend a foot or so above the surface after the soil 

 that was dug out of the pit is returned over the arch. There should be 

 two doors 80 as to entirely exclude the light when passing in and out. 

 Such an appartment would range from 35 to 45 degrees. If early va- 

 rieties are harvested at the proper time, according to previous direc- 

 tions for first crop, early and late varieties and second crop early at 

 their proper time, and immediately stored in such an apartment, with- 

 out exposure to any drying or wilting process, all of their palatable 

 and nutritive qualities will be retained and preserved in their very 

 highest degree of perfection. In localities where water is liable to rise 

 in an unerground cellar, a good one may be constructed above ground 

 by building double frost-proof walls of brick or stone with the roof 

 packed with some non-conducting material, or chaff as sawdust ; and 

 if such a storage should prove too dry so as to cause the tubers to wilt, 

 they may be kept in good condition by covering them with damp 

 straw, forest leaves or some such material and by sprinkling occasion- 

 ally, just sufficiently to keep them moist ; but water should not by any 

 means be allowed to stand in the bins or barrels in which potatoes are 

 stored. Sufficient drainage should be provided to carry off all super- 

 fluous moisture. 



By observing these requisites, potatoes may be raised in the 

 Southern States as successfully as here or at the north, only they at 

 the south should plant early varieties as early as the season will permit 

 and hold over a supply of the first crop in cool, moist storage to prevent 

 rotting, and then plant the second crop Justin time to mature by frost, 



