'Vegetables with Edible Tubers or Roots 251 



found more profitable to use horse power. A favorite 

 way is to plow them out with a common two-horse turning 

 plow, and then have the hands gather those in sight and 

 work the hills over till they are found. A more successful 

 method is to use a potato digger. A cheap form is simply 

 a large bull-tongue plow with iron rods projecting back 

 to separate the potatoes and the soil. The machine is 

 simple, but saves much labor and does efficient work. 

 There are also much more elaborate machines, that dig 

 and elevate the potatoes to a wagon, thus reducing the 

 labor to a minimum; but these are not operated easily 

 unless the land has been well cleared. 



Storing potatoes. 



In colder climates, all that is necessary is to keep the 

 potatoes from freezing, and usually they will remain 

 sound until spring. As soon as warm weather approaches, 

 they begin to sprout. This may be prevented by keeping 

 the cellar cool. In the South the matter of storing is not 

 quite so simple, as the temperature is usually so high that 

 germination begins soon after ripening. A successful 

 way of keeping potatoes for family use is to kill the buds, 

 and then barrel the tubers to prevent excessive evapora- 

 tion. One-half to one per cent sulf uric acid will accomplish 

 this. The potatoes are placed in the liquid for an hour 

 and then removed to dry. Of course this will remove all 

 vitality from the buds, and the potatoes can only be used 

 for food. The operation kills many germs of decay at 

 the same time, and so acts as a preservative. Another 

 excellent way is to keep the tubers in thoroughly dried 

 sand, to which one part in four of air-slaked lime has 



