130 THE POTATO. 



clamped, starting the new clamp opposite the open end of 

 the old one, and so using the same foundation or base. 

 Care must be taken not to open the pit during severe frost. 



Storing: in Sheds. Where there is sufficient accom- 

 modation, ripe potatoes may be stored in buildings or 

 sheds, if covered with a good thickness of straw, which 

 serves to exclude both light (which would green them) and 

 frost. This method involves less labour than clamping, 

 and the tubers are more easily got at when wanted for 

 sale. Care should be taken not to allow them to rest 

 against the walls of the building, as frost is liable to injure 

 them through the walls, unless these are very thick. A 

 good thickness of straw or other litter makes all safe. The 

 potatoes may be placed in heaps of almost any size ; but 

 if a very great depth is stored it is well to make ventilating 

 shafts of straw at intervals of a few feet. Potatoes stored 

 in this way are not likely to sprout to any great extent; 

 but, should they do so, they may be turned as described 

 for those stored in clamps. 



Storing Green Potatoes Some growers are be- 

 lievers in green or unripe seed potatoes that is, potatoes 

 that are lifted before the crop is really maturo. As already 

 mentioned, such tubers do not keep so successfully as ripe 

 ones in ordinary clamps, but they may be stored in shallow 

 pits in the earth, not more than two feet deep, covered 

 only by a good thickness of straw, and not by any soil at all. 



Storing: Tubers for Planting:. " Seed " tubers 

 may be stored in the special boxes illustrated and de- 

 scribed in Chapter VII., or in the following manner: A sec- 

 tion of a ussful rack for storing " seed " potatoes is shown 

 in Fig. 7, whilst Fig. 8 is the end elevation, and Fig. 9 

 shows how the potatoes are placed in it. This rack can be 

 constructed by anyone with a little spare time, and will 

 be found very handy and well worth the time and trouble 

 spent on it. The size can be as desired, four feet six 



