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VEGETABLE GARDENING 



to allow the moisture to pass off. In the colder weather 

 of late autumn, the covering, of course, should be heavier, 

 and when potatoes have ceased to sweat there is no need 

 of ventilation. In milder sections, potatoes are stored 

 through the winter in such pits, but it is impracticable 

 farther North. Even in Minnesota, however, potatoes 

 may be safely kept over winter in trenches or pits made 

 below the ground, although a good cellar is a more desir- 

 able place. For this purpose the pit should not be large; 

 a good size is four feet wide and deep and not more than 



Fig. 111. Cross section of a winter potato pit. 



six feet long. It should be filled heaping full with potatoes 

 and covered with six inches of straw and eighteen of soil. 

 Ventilation is given until cold weather sets in and the 

 potatoes are cooled off. The whole pit should then be cov- 

 ered with enough litter or manure (generally about two feet) 

 to keep out the frost. Such pits can only be opened in 

 mild weather. If this work is well done, the potatoes 

 will be in fine condition in the spring; but beginners are 

 very apt to fail of success in this method of storing, and 

 they should attempt it only on a small scale. It is better 



