70 



some cases they should not be allowed to become 

 quite so mature as when they are to be used at 

 once, while other plants should be perfectly ma- 

 tured before harvesting for storage. The process 

 of maturing or ripening goes on gradually in stor- 

 age, and the time during which they can be held 

 without serious loss of quality will be greatly 

 lengthened by attention to this point. 



Avoid all injuries to vegetables to be stored. 

 Whenever the tissues are broken or bruised, 

 decay is almost sure to start, especially if 

 moisture and temperature conditions are not 

 quite ideal. This is true of such vegetables 

 as cabbage and sweet potatoes. In many cases the 

 entire quantity stored will be almost completely 

 destroyed in a very short time by the rots carried 

 into the storage from the fields and largely spread 

 by the cuts and bruises of careless handling. 



Storage rooms and houses adapted to the needs 

 of the home gardener and the small commercial 

 gardener are of especial interest. The storage 

 problems of the large truck gardener are compar- 

 atively easily solved. His business is sufficiently 

 large to justify the building of houses along the 

 most approved lines, but for the person who grows 

 vegetables for home use or to supply his local mar- 

 ket in a limited way, these expensive houses are 

 out of the question. 



The common place of storing, when storing is 

 done at all, in both city and country, is the house 

 cellar. As it is ordinarily constructed, it would be 

 hard to conceive of a poorer place for this purpose, 

 and with the much more general use of furnaces in 

 the country as well as in the city, its value has been 

 still further decreased. The air of the ordinary cellar 



