HARVESTING POTATOES 435 



grown, the crop is commonly dug with a fork, the potatoes 

 from two rows being thrown together. In other cases, po- 

 tatoes are plowed out with a common plow. The potatoes 

 that are thus exposed are picked up; then the land is har- 

 rowed and others are brought to the surface. This method, 

 however, is not in general use because all of the potatoes are 

 not obtained. Where large acreages are grown, a four-horse 

 potato digger is commonly used. This machine is equipped 

 with a broad, sharp point which runs under the row and 

 carries the dirt, vines, and potatoes over a chain elevator 

 through which the dirt falls, leaving the potatoes to be 

 dropped behind. There are several different types of potato 

 diggers, but all work on approximately the same principle. 

 This is by far the most satisfactory way of digging potatoes 

 where there is much of it to do. 



568. Picking. No satisfactory method of picking up 

 potatoes by machinery has as yet been invented. Picking 

 is done by hand, the picker using a basket, a bushel box, or 

 a sack. Sometimes several baskets are set on a stone-boat 

 and hauled between the rows with one horse, the pickers 

 tossing the potatoes into the baskets. In Maine they are 

 commonly gathered in baskets and then put into barrels for 

 marketing. 



569. Sorting. Some small potatoes are always produced 

 with the large ones, and often there are irregular, sunburned, 

 and diseased tubers. If these are mixed with the good, 

 smooth, uniform potatoes the quality of the whole crop is 

 lowered. On this account most growers find it profitable 

 to sort their potatoes, offering for sale only the best grade, 

 and using the poorer ones for stock feed or for the manufac- 

 ture of starch or alcohol. Sorting is best done when the po- 

 tatoes are being gathered, for at that time one can most 

 easily reject the undesirable tubers. Machines for sorting 



