POTATO CULTUKE. 137 



Held they had to be all handled with the fingers : in the cel- 

 lar we could use a shovel. My son, then quite young, did 

 the shoveling, and helped me lift the basket on my shoulder ; 

 and as the door was eight feet high I could walk right out 

 without stooping. The boy liked it better in the cellar too ; 

 his ringers didn't get so dirty and cold, when shoveling, as 

 when he was picking up. If the cellar had been about five 

 feet and a half high, and the stairway poor, my testimony 

 might have been different. 



By the use of boxes, and as my cellar is arranged, I can 

 put a carloa'l into the cellar easier than in piles, when you 

 take into account the covering of the piles ; and then I have 

 got through doing very much picking up, with cold fingers 

 oftentimes, out of piles outdoors, when I can shovel them up 

 under cover. We have a house cellar where we can put in 

 2000 bushels, on a pinch, and also a barn cellar that will hold 

 1000. But for storing large quantities temporarily we use 

 the basement of our barn, which was built with this object 

 in view. It saves bringing potatoes upstairs out of the cel- 

 lar. We darken the windows by covering with building- 

 paper, and pile the potatoes right on the earth floor from 

 three to four feet deep. We have often had a solid pile of 

 this kind about 11x60 feet. The barn cellar is on a level 

 with the basement floor, and just as handy. As we are sel- 

 dom able to sell by the car as soon as we can dig our early 

 potatoes, we dig and put them right into the barn as fast as 

 possible, and then when wanted they are ready, and mean- 

 while they are safe, and a buyer can see them. It is little 

 trouble to store them ; we can rush in a good many in a day 

 with digger, boxes, and about three men besides myself. If 

 they are sorted in the field (little ones not picked up) we can 

 shovel them up in the barn when we sell, as the floor is quite 

 smooth. This beats covering piles and outdoor picking-np 

 in the late fall. If we want to save little ones why, we 

 pick up every thing after the machine, and then sort at our 

 leisure in the warm barn, either letting in a little light, if 



