86 



GARDEN FARMING 



this has set for several weeks cover the whole with a layer of earth 

 from 8 to 10 inches deep. 



Ventilation should be provided by placing a terra-cotta tile 

 & or 10 inches in diameter every 10 feet along the ridge of the 

 pit. Such a pit, provided with a well-insulated door, is a more satis- 

 factory storage place than the dwelling cellar. Every farm at the 

 North* should be equipped with some such frost-proof storage cellar. 

 A Southern storage pit. At the South a simple but very effective 

 root storage is made with poles cut about 8 feet long and split so 



FIG. 30. Southern storage pit covered with earth 



that the two parts are about equal. Parallel trenches are made 

 about i foot deep, I foot wide, and 8 feet apart. A ridgepole is 

 then arranged between the two trenches, and against this the flat- 

 tened poles, with ends cut like the rafters of an even-span roof, are 

 placed. The other end of each pole rests in the trench. The ends 

 of the structure are boarded up and the roof is covered with a layer of 

 sods and earth, as shown in figure 30. Such a structure is adapted 

 for the storage of turnips and is often used for sweet potatoes. 



Frost-proof storage houses. Besides the types of storage structures 

 already described, there are in use, among producers and dealers, 

 frost-proof structures designed to carry safely through the winter 



