142 POTATO CULTUKE. 



grow long, the potatoes are injured ; and they used to get 

 left, for it was a job we all dreaded. Now it is fun. We can 

 run them through the sprouter in 20 minutes, or less ; and if 

 sprouts are not allowed to get too long it will take them off 

 nicely. If they get too long and tough, they do not break off 

 well. It would pay me to keep a sprouter just to sprout 

 what we eat. I dislike mean jobs, and to set my son and 

 man at them ; and as for letting my wife or daughters do 

 it well, they would if necessary, but I am glad to say it 

 never is. 



For sprouting only, one can run potatoes through very 

 fast. He can sort faster than we did this morning ; but we 

 were taking time to do as perfect a job as possible. To do 

 nice sorting one must turn very slowly, and not put in too 

 many at once, and also block up the lower feet an inch or so. 

 Properly managed, the sorter and sprouter will do all you can 

 ask of it in the spring. But at digging-time in the fall, when 

 the skins are not very tough, it bruises our potatoes too 

 much. This may not be the case with all varieties and 

 under all circumstances. I can tell only what I know. We 

 sort by hand in the fall. There is no trouble about bruising 

 in the spring. Of course, the sorter takes out all loose soil. 

 I wanted to take the whole season for rewriting this book, 

 and write of each point as we were at work in that line. It 

 would make the matter more interesting. But the publishers 

 could not wait. In this matter of sorting and sprouting I 

 have been able to do as I wanted to do the work in the 

 morning and sit down and write in the afternoon just what 

 we actually did. 



