POTATOES 385 



the water serve the purpose of supplying moisture and cultivation 

 at the same time. Water should not be expected to perform this 

 double duty ; it should be relied upon only to furnish moisture, 

 and the proper mechanical condition of the soil should be main- 

 tained by cultivation. 



Harvesting. Potatoes are harvested by the use of diggers. 

 Machines are put to work as soon as the vines have been cut by 

 frost. As rapidly as the tubers are thrown out by the machines, 

 pickers, usually equipped with wire baskets holding a half bushel, 



FIG. 146. Hauling potatoes from field to storage pit, Colorado 



follow and transfer the tubers, if they are to be marketed immedi- 

 ately, to a grader similar to that described on page 364, which is 

 hauled across the field. As the potatoes are gathered they are 

 sorted and packed in sacks holding from 100 to 120 pounds. If 

 the potatoes are to be stored, they are placed in sacks filled about 

 half full, after which they are loaded onto platform wagons similar 

 to that shown in figure 146, and hauled to the storage houses. 



Storage houses. The dugout, or storage cellar, which is com- 

 mon throughout the potato-growing regions of Colorado, affords a 

 cheap and efficient storage for potatoes in the dry climates, but is 

 distinctively a dry-region structure. It is not adapted to humid re- 

 gions. The dugout is simply an excavation made of the required 



