112 THE POTATO 



the dirt fell through and the potatoes were car- 

 ried over. 



To make a field trial of a machine in the par- 

 ticular character of soil it is to be used in is a safe 

 way to select a digger. 



Green, heavy tops clog a digger. Some pull the 

 tops and haul them off the field in order to make 

 digging easier. A simpler way to remedy this dif- 

 ficulty is to run a harrow over the field — in the 

 same direction that the digger will run. This 

 straightens out the tops and they make less 

 trouble. A long spike tooth harrow, with teeth 

 slanted back, should be used. 



An essential in digging potatoes is to let the 

 tubers lie on the top of the ground for two or six 

 hours to dry out any dirt clinging to them and 

 toughen the skin. In this way the potato is less 

 liable to bruise in the after handling and much 

 less dirt is carried from the field. 



Some potato digging machinery manufacturers 

 have been trying to perfect a device for sacking as 

 well as digging potatoes. It would seem that the 

 "drying out" in the sun, previously mentioned, is 

 of such importance as to make this attachment 

 impractical. 



In the districts in the western part of the 

 United States potatoes are picked by hand into 

 pails or baskets and deposited in "half sacks." 

 Regular potato sacks are half filled and pickers are 

 paid a stated price for filling into each one bushel. 

 Half sacks are used to make handling easier. 

 (Filled and sewed, the sack holds about two bushels, 

 or 120 pounds.) The usual price is three cents 

 per bushel for picking. 



These small sacks are hauled from the fields to 

 the cellar and there the potatoes are spread out 



