STORING AND KEEPING. 47 



covered with straw. The potatoes are dried, after digging 

 and before stoi-ing, by exposure to the air (not to tlie 

 sun) a few hours. No potatoes that are bruised or cut 

 are put in the heap. It is cpiite probable this mode 

 would not j)rove successful at the North, but I give it for 

 what it is worth to southern readers." 



Doubtless Mr. Wilson's mode would prove successful 

 in the South, or in all jiotauo regions south of him. The 

 plan is very sinqile and cheaj). 



A first-class Sweet Potato house in New Jersey is now 

 built of stone, one-half under and one-half above 

 ground, though banked to the eaves, with an entry 

 through the center, in which the stove is placed. The 

 bins are from six to eight feet scjuare, and eight to twelve 

 deep. The house is sixteen by eighteen feet inside, with 

 walls ten feet high, five feet of which are above the levtd 

 of the ground, but banked to the eaves. There is a glass 

 door on the south, with a window above. This house 

 holds three thousand bushels ; when full, three thousand 

 five hundred bushels. It is plastered from the wall up to 

 the peak, with lathing on the under side of the rafters. 



The main crop is usually dug after a very slight frost 

 has touched the vines — cutting them off the vines, plow- 

 ing out, and "shaking off" three rows together. For 

 market, the potatoes are then " rubbed off," and put up 

 in baskets, in two sizes. For winter sales they are picked 

 without rubbing off, and poured into large bins in a 

 house or cellar, with a constant fire, especially during 

 the sweating period. The best temi^erature is about 

 sixty degrees. 



Other Ways of Keeping. — ''I have noticed for the 

 last few years various plans for preventing Sweet Potatoes 

 from rotting after being gathered and banked and 

 housed. It was my father's plan to wait until the frost 

 bad partially killed the vines, and dig on a good, open 



