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air for a few minutes. If the cut or broken surface dries they 

 are mature, but if the surface remains moist they are not ready 

 to be dug. 



The second essential, careful handling, is of the greatest im- 

 portance and should be practiced in digging, gathering, hauling, 

 and unloading. The potatoes should be sorted in the field and 

 gathered in padded baskets or boxes to prevent bruising or 

 breaking the skin. The baskets or boxes should be loaded on 

 the wagon, hauled to the storage house, and the potatoes care- 

 fully poured into the bins. When they are to be hauled very 

 far a wagon with bolster springs should be used. Sweet potatoes 

 should never be thrown from one row to another, loaded loosely 

 into a wagon body, or hauled in bags, because any of these 

 methods will bruise them and give a chance for disease to enter. 



Careful handling is one of the essentials in keeping sweet 

 potatoes, and there is no more important place to practice it than, 

 in the field at digging time. The implement used to dig sweet 

 l)otatoes should be one that does not cut or bruise the roots. 

 One of the best types of diggers is a plow with rolling colters 

 on the beam to cut the vines and with rods attached to the mold- 

 board to free the roots from the soil and vines. After the pota- 

 toes are dug they should be scratched out by hand and allowed 

 to remain exposed long enough to dry ofif. The digging should 

 be done, if possible, when the weather is bright and the soil is 

 dry. 



The potatoes should be graded in the field in order to reduce 

 the cost of handling to a minimum. A good plan is to go over 

 the rows and pick up the sound, marketable potatoes in one bas- 

 ket, then gather all of the seed stock in another basket or box, 

 and the injured ones in still another. These lots should be stored 

 in dififerent bins. By following this method it will not be neces- 

 sary to grade the potatoes at the storage house and will thus save 

 time and reduce the cost of handling. The potatoes should be 

 poured into the bins as carefully as possible, to prevent bruising. 

 Sweet potatoes can be stored in boxes, hampers, baskets, or bins 

 with equally satisfactory results. The preference of the indivi- 

 dual grower will determine the method to be employed. Each 

 year after the sweet potatoes have been marketed the house 

 should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before being used 

 again. All dirt and refuse should be cleaned out and all parts 

 of the interior sprayed or washed thoroughly with a solution 

 of formalin (1 pint of formalin to 10 or 15 gallons of water). 

 Diseased roots should not be thrown on the manure pile or on 

 land to be used for sweet potatoes, the safest plan being to burn 

 them. 



In filling the storage house the workmen should begin at the 

 back end of the bins and pour a layer of potatoes about 2 feet 

 deep in all of the bins rather than fill one bin at a time. If the 

 bins are 8 or 10 feet long it is a good plan to divide them into 



