POTATOES. 



347 



POTATO-DIGGER. 



Potatoes may be thrown out of the ground by various implements the horse potato- 

 diggers being the best. The plow, hand-hoe, and potato-hook are also used; but the former 

 often injures many of the tubers, and buries others in the soil, while digging by hand is a 

 slow and laborious process. Where large crops are raised, a potato-digger is almost a 

 necessity. 



The following cuts represent different kinds of these implements, the former manufac 

 tured by A. Speer & Sons, Pittsburg, Pa., the latter, Joseph Breck & Sons, Boston, Mass. 



&quot;When properly worked, 

 a good potato-digger will pay 

 for itself several times over 

 in a single season, where a 

 farmer has a large crop to 

 harvest. Their use is a great 

 saving of labor. The digging 

 should always be performed 

 when the soil is dry. Mr. A. 

 Hyde of Massachusetts, of 

 whom we have made previous 

 reference in connection with this crop, gives the following sensible advice on harvesting 

 potatoes: 



The time of digging must depend upon circumstances. If the crop is designed for 

 winter and spring use, and the soil is 

 dry, we should prefer to let the pota 

 toes lie in the ground till the weather 

 is cool enough to allow them to be 

 immediately stored in the cellar. But 

 if the soil is moist and the crop shows 

 a tendency to rot, it should be dug as 

 soon as mature, and placed on some 

 dry knoll, scattering with every half 

 dozen bushels a quart of fresh-slacked 

 lime. Over the pile the potato vines 

 may be thrown, and over the whole a NEW Y &amp;lt;&amp;gt;RK POTATO-DIGGER. 



few inches of dry soil in a conical form, making a pit much like the charcoal-pit. The lime 

 checks the tendency to rot, and we have never known potatoes thus treated to fail of keep 

 ing well. Some recommend charcoal dust instead of lime, and we presume it is useful, as it 

 is an antiseptic ; but we cannot recommend it from personal experience. When the weather 

 becomes cool the potatoes can be removed to the cellar or taken to market. 



By all means dig in dry weather, and store the potatoes away as dry as possible, with 

 but little exposure to the sun. The skin of the potato is of a corky nature, impervious to 

 water, and designed to keep external moisture from the potato and the internal moisture from 

 evaporation, and, if too long exposed to wet, will sometimes rot, when the tuber must perish. 

 A well-ripened potato, put up dry in the fall, will lose little weight during the winter, its skin 

 preventing evaporation as effectually as does the tight cork of a bottle. In the warm weather 

 of summer, the starch is converted into sugar, and slowly evaporates through the pores of 

 the skin. 



All cutting and bruising of potatoes must be carefully avoided. They must be treated as 

 things of life, and not like the stones which can be tossed about without sensation. Every 

 cut and every bruise increases the tendency to decay. The potato may not be quite as sensi 

 tive as the apple, may stand more hard whacks; but still, every bruise breaks the cellular 



