40 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The potatoes at the floor should be loaded not less than 6 inches away from the 

 sides and ends of the car. (Fig. 34.) Where potatoes are stood up in the car each 

 sack of potatoes should be placed about 4 inches apart in the row, and the sacks 

 in the row above should be placed over the 4-inch space between the sacks in the 

 row below. This same method of loading applies to sacks which are being laid flat. 

 If this scheme of loading is carried out carefully there will be uniform ventila- 

 tion throughout the whole car and ample opportunity for the warm air to be 

 distributed equally in the event of it being necessary to heat the car. Great care 

 should be exercised to exclude any of the rots to which potatoes are subject if they 

 are intended for long shipment or storage. 



THE COST OF GROWING POTATOES. 



Questions are often asked regarding the cost of producing an acre of potatoes. 

 Such questions are difficult to answer, and in fact cannot be answered accurately. 

 Many factors may influence the cost of production per acre. The farmer who adopts 

 the best cultural methods, treats his seed, sprays his crops, and selects his seed 

 carefully will naturally have a higher expenditure than one who does just what is 

 essential to plant-growth and no more. 



Table VIII. has been drawn up as a very approximate estimate, showing the 

 expenditure of two types of growers. The one, a careful grower, is represented 

 by the letter A, and the other, a careless grower, is represented by the letter B. 

 Since the number of hours required to do a piece of work remains more nearly the 

 same from year to year than do labour charges, it has been considered wise to 

 roughly estimate the number of man and horse hours required for each operation 

 and to include them in the table. The cost of man-labour has been calculated at 

 50 cents per hour and the cost of horse-labour at 25 cents per horse per hour, or 

 50 cents an hour for the team. Of course, where labour is hired by the month or 

 year, charges would be somewhat lower than those given. 



TaUe VIII. 



NOTE. -All charges are based on prices for 1920. 



It will be observed that depreciation in machinery, rent of land, etc., have not 

 been accounted for ; therefore, if these factors were brought into consideration, the 



