THE POTATO 469 



they will get any potatoes that have been covered 

 up by the inefficiency of the crude digger they 

 have been using. They are thrown into a round 

 sieve thirty inches in diameter that sets on an- 

 other sieve, and this on top of an empty barrel. 

 The top sieve has a three fourths inch mesh. A 

 man shakes this sieve and the potatoes that do 

 not go through this sieve are pitched into a sack 

 held by a sack-holder. The lower sieve holds the 

 very small potatoes for stock feed. It takes a big, 

 strong man to do this all day. All potatoes over a 

 three fourths inch mesh are marketed as early 

 potatoes. Sacks weigh 112 pounds net. Eng- 

 lish laws do not allow the weighing of a package or 

 a sack in marketing, as is the custom in America. 

 They do have weigh bridges (scales) for potatoes 

 if they do not for cattle. Every sack of potatoes 

 is sold at the net weight at which it is filled at 

 harvesting time. 



The laborers pull the top, dig up and sort, sack, 

 weigh and sew and winrow the tops, going over 

 the field twice, for $10 per acre, contract price. 

 The boys and girls make 30 cents a day, the women 

 48 cents, and men $1. All board themselves. 



The main or late crop is harvested and handled 

 the same way, and goes direct to market. Those 

 that are stored for late market are put in pits or 

 piled upon the ground six or seven feet wide at 

 the base and coned up at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees. As the weather gets colder they are 

 thatched with straw and dirt is added. 



On this farm an economical plan is just being 

 worked out. It is a narrow gauge railway that 

 goes around the outside of a 1,000-acre farm and 

 once through the centre, running to the storage 

 house and railway shipping station. When the 



