236 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



half full an important matter, as it makes them light to handle 

 and does away with the necessity of tying, and two men can 

 load or unload a wagon in twenty minutes. If you pour the 

 potatoes loose in the wagon-box, you must have a team to keep 

 the wagon alongside of where you are digging, or else must 

 carry the potatoes some distance to reach the wagon, while if 

 you put them into sacks you can drop a sack wherever filled 

 and then, when a load is ready, drive around and pick them up. 

 If you expect to market before spring, you should store in 

 the cellar, and it will pay to make some good movable bins for 

 them. These can be of any size you wish, but should always 



be of a size that can be car- 

 ried in and out of the cellar. 

 The accompanying cut shows 

 one convenient form. 



This is made of strips, 

 both for the bottom and sides, 

 with spaces between them, and 

 being raised upon legs, thor- 

 ough ventilation is secured. 

 Cross-boards may be put in to 

 separate varieties. 

 If there is a large quantity of potatoes to be stored, several 

 of these bins may be placed one above another, the upper ones 

 being without legs. 



The potatoes you wish to keep for a spring market, or for 

 seed, will do better properly buried than kept in a cellar, as 

 they will lose nothing in weight and will not begin to sprout or 

 wilt so early. In pitting potatoes, do not put too large a bulk 

 together. Build them up in a sharp ridge, so as to have a hun- 

 dred bushels extend about twenty feet, and always run the 

 ridges with the slope of the land, and in starting your pit, be- 

 gin on the highest land and work down the slope. This will 

 enable you to protect your pit from water, if a sudden rain 

 comes up. I plow out two furrows each way, and throw out the 

 loose earth so as to have the rick of potatoes about four feet 

 wide at the ground, and then slope the sides so that it will be about 



A MOVABLE POTATO BIN. 



