Harvesting and Storage 185 



Advantages of the storage-house over the batik. 



The storage-house has a great advantage over the 

 bank in that the two main essentials in keeping sweet 

 potatoes (proper temperature and ventilation) can be 

 regulated. In a storage-house this is done by means of 

 artificial heat and specially constructed flues, ventilators 

 and windows, whereas in a bank, ventilation must be 

 depended on entirely, by means of an apparatus which 

 cannot be controlled conveniently. Often sweet pota- 

 toes may be kept very successfully in a bank, especially 

 in a dry year when potatoes do not contain an unusually 

 large amount of surplus sap, or if very careful attention 

 is given to the control of ventilators in the bank when 

 conditions are ideal. In some years nearly all sweet 

 potatoes are lost by soft-rot, which spreads very rapidly. 



A maintenance of the proper temperature during the 

 storage period, after the potatoes have been cured, is 

 very important. Such a temperature can easily be 

 maintained in a properly constructed storage-house, 

 while it is very difficult to accomplish with the bank 

 method, especially in freezing weather when the cold 

 is likely to penetrate the bank, thus chill the potatoes 

 and cause them to decay. 



Even though the bank method were satisfactory in 

 other respects, the extra cost of building these banks 

 each year, and the expense involved in moving the pota- 

 toes from such storage, especially in bad weather, makes 

 them very uneconomical. To show the economy of a 

 permanent house over temporary banks, even when the 

 loss from rot in the house is as much as that in a bank, 

 the following record is given of a house actually oper- 

 ated in south Mississippi during 1918. It should not 



