2 BULLETIN 1063, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PRELIMINARY STUDIES. 



In preparing for this investigational work on sweet-potato storage 

 a study was made of the industry in the South. It was found that 

 storage and marketing were by far the most serious problems con- 

 fronting the grower at that time, but it was evident that little could 

 be done on the marketing problem until the storage problem was 

 solved. At the time these studies were made, careful estimates indi- 

 cated that on the average the loss by decay was fully 30 per cent 

 of the sweet potatoes stored in pits or banks, the common method of 

 caring for the crop in the South, while in many cases the loss was 

 complete. In addition to the loss due to storage rots, it was found 

 that these potatoes were poor in quality when removed from the 

 pits and decayed rapidly after they were placed on the market. 

 From these preliminary studies it was evident that experimental 

 work on sweet-potato storage was needed, especially in the South, 

 where the bulk of the crop is grown, and that some method of stor- 

 age was desirable which would give better results than the pit and 

 bank methods. 



Various types of storage houses had been used in some of the 

 sweet-potato growing sections, but at this time there were very few 

 storage houses in the South, and practically none of these were in 

 the sections of States producing large crops of sweet potatoes. 

 Various commercial sweet-potato regions, including New Jersey, 

 Delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Iowa, and a few in the South, were 

 visited, and studies were made of the types of storage houses and 

 the materials and methods used in their construction, ventilation, 

 heating, and management. The methods employed in harvesting 

 and caring for the sweet-potato crop were also noted, and a study was 

 made of the results obtained in the various types of houses under 

 the different methods employed in handling the sweet-potato crop. 

 From these observations it was thought that the first step should be 

 to devise a type of house that would meet the needs of the South. 

 The good features of all the storage houses that had been visited 

 were combined and a plan was made by the senior writer in 1912. 

 This plan, somewhat modified, was later published in Farmers' 

 Bulletins 548 and 970. 



In 1912 a few houses were built in Alabama and Mississippi, ac- 

 cording to these plans, and observations were made on the keeping 

 of sweet potatoes in them. This work was done during the first year 

 in cooperation with the agricultural colleges in Alabama and Mis- 

 sissippi, but after that active cooperation ceased. The work was con- 

 tinued in these and other States by the Office of Horticultural and 

 Pomological Investigations of the Bureau of Plant Industry. The 

 houses built in 1912 were so successful that they served as demon- 



