212 THE HANDBOOK FOE PKACTICAL FAEMERS 



twenty degrees below zero the pitting of vegetables should n©t 

 be attempted. Such crops as turnips, parsnips, beets, carrots, 

 cabbage and potatoes may be kept until late spring if stored on 

 a well-drained strip of soil. Where the soil is more or less level, 

 dig two trenches eight inches deep on each side of the mound 

 base, which should be about six feet wide and the required 

 length, so that the vegetables may be piled four feet deep. Place 

 on the surface of the ridge about six inches of clean straw. 



If the pit is only live feet long, place a ventilator in the center. 

 Pile the vegetables around the ventilator to a height of four feet 

 and cover the mound-shaped pile with six to eight inches of 

 straw. As the weather grows colder, cover the mound with suf- 

 ficient soil to 



Roof to VerttiU.*or: 



keep out the 

 frost. It is not 

 a bad idea to 

 throw a strip 

 of canvas over 

 the mound 

 early in the fall 

 to keep out the 

 rain until suffi- 

 c i e n t soil i s 

 added to shed 

 the water . 

 Open the pit 

 at one end and 



stuff the hole Avitli sufficient straw to keep the frost out after 

 desired vegetables have been removed. Cabbage may be buried 

 three tiers high by standing the cabbage head down on the 

 straw. Cabbage should be the last crop to store, for it quickl}^ 

 decays in warm weather. Eemove only the partly decayed 

 leaves and do not disturb the roots. 



The vegetable cellar. — The great difficulty with most of the 

 cellars is that there has been no forethought regarding a vege- 

 table store room and the furnace and pipes are so placed that it 

 is a problem to construct the proper type of storage room. 

 Select a part of the cellar under a window and construct your 

 storeroom with beaver board on the outside (a non-conductor of 

 heat and cold) . While the shape or contrivance may not be ideal, 

 yet it may answer the purpose. Bins may be constructed to 

 divide the potatoes from the roots. The floor, if concrete, should 

 be covered mth boards raised from three to six inches from the 



Fig. 118. — Diagram of a vegetable pit. It should run east 

 and west and the mouth of the ventilator should slant 

 north. Have eight inches of straw at the base of the 

 pit. As the weather grows colder add more earth, as 

 indicated, to keep out the frost. 



