POTATO. 



197 



ly kept over 'vinter in trenches or pits made below the ground, 

 although a good cellar is a more desirable place. For this 

 purpose the pit should not be large; a good size is four feet wide 

 and deep and not more than six feet long. It should be filled 

 heaping full with the potatoes and covered with six inches of 

 straw and eighteen of soil. Ventilation is given until cold weath- 

 er sets in and the potatoes are cooled off. The whole pit should 

 then be covered with enough litter or manure (generally about 

 two feet) to keep out the frost. Such pits can only be opened in 

 mild weather. If this work is well done, the potatoes will be in 

 fine condition in the spring, but beginners are very apt to fail 

 of success in this method of storing, and they should attempt it 

 only on a small scale. It is better to make several pits close 



"varieties of early potatoes. 1— Ohio Jr. 2— Early Ohic 

 3 -Burpee's Extra Early. 4-Early Harvest. 5-Freeman. 6-Good Ne^^s. 



together rather than one large one, since in a large one the pota- 

 toes are more likely to sweat. The sunlight should not be al- 

 lowed to shine on them for any length of time, since it causes 

 them to turn green and develops a poisonous substance in them. 

 If kept in a cellar, the bins are improved by having slatted floors 

 and sides, so that there muy be some circulation of air through 

 them to prevent heating at the bottom. The bins should not be 

 large nor more than five feet deep. There is a great difference 

 in the keeping qualitiec of varieties; as a rule the early kinds are 



