POTATOES 365 



loss from decay, which may range anywhere from I to 1 5 per cent, 

 depending upon the condition of the tubers when stored and upon 

 storage facilities. There is also a possibility of loss from freezing 

 or from uncongenial storage conditions. Then, too, if the price 

 of potatoes at digging time is in the neighborhood of 40 cents or 

 50 cents per bushel, it is usually more profitable to sell at that time 

 than from January to April at 75 cents a bushel, because the loss 

 sustained from shrinkage and rot, or other storage conditions, is 

 usually sufficient to offset the difference in price. Some growers, 

 however, insist that it is best to store potatoes. This is undoubtedly 

 true if the price at digging time is below 40 cents a bushel, but no 

 arbitrary rule can be laid down. All factors that may have a direct 

 bearing upon the future price of the product should be carefully 

 considered, provided the decision to hold or to sell the crop is 

 entirely within one's own control. 



The grower should keep thoroughly informed concerning the 

 prospective crop in the various sections with which his product 

 competes in the market the acreage planted and the conditions 

 of the crop as compared with those of former years. There are 

 reliable statistical reports and periodicals from which such infor- 

 mation can be obtained. A careful study of these reports should 

 clearly indicate the status of the crop and give a reliable basis for 

 a judgment as to what the price of potatoes will be in any season. 



Shipment and marketing. Potatoes are frequently gathered from 

 the field, carried directly to the shipping point and marketed in 

 bulk in carload lots. In some cases the potatoes as they are picked 

 up are dumped into wagons, from which they are shoveled with 

 wooden or wire scoops into the cars. More frequently, however, 

 picking crates are loaded directly into wagons, and the potatoes 

 are not rehandled until they are dumped into the car. This is a 

 common practice among the Northern growers of late potatoes. 



The truck growers along the Atlantic coast market their pota- 

 toes almost exclusively in ventilated barrels or gunny sacks. 

 Barrels of the ordinary type, which hold 3 bushels, are made of 

 laths, staves, or splints and have one solid end, the other end 

 being covered with a gunny sack. In other localities a common 

 receptacle for marketing potatoes is a sack which holds either 90 or 

 165 pounds. The QO-pound sack is the receptacle most commonly 



