Harvesting the Potato 



233 



piled up in tiers and about 60 boxes put on a load. Boxes 

 of this description can be purchased for about 18 cents 

 each. Slat crates of cheaper construction can be had for 

 about 12 to 18 cents each. These boxes are quite dur- 

 able and with proper care should last 10 or 12 years. 



There are now on the market machines which dig and 

 bag potatoes in one operation. Machines of this sort 

 undoubtedly save a great amount of labor, and in some 



Fig. 17. One type of potato sorter. 



cases will prove to be good investments. We should 

 remember, however, that potatoes harvested in this 

 manner have no chance to dry off and are therefore more 

 likely to rot in storage than those which have stood for 

 a few hours on the surface of the ground. 



Where the weather will permit, it is usually advisable 

 to sort potatoes in the field. Various types of sorting 

 machines are used for this purpose (see Fig. 17 and Plate 

 XV). One is simply a wooden frame on runners, having 

 two inclined sieves of heavy wire. The largest potatoes 

 roll down the top sieve into a sack at the end. The 

 smaller potatoes fall through the upper sieve on to a finer 



