SWEET-POTATO STORAGE STUDIES. 
Table 2. — Relation of the place of storage to the keeping quality of sweet 
potatoes. 
[Percentage of loss due to decay in a storage house and in outdoor banks and pits.] 
Variety. 
Triumph 
Nancy Hall 
Nancy Hall — 
Nancy Hall 
Triumph 
Nancy Hall 
Nancy Hall 
Mixed varieties . 
Nancy Hall 
Nancy Hall — 
Total... 
Average. 
Test 
No. 
Year. 
1913-14 
1914-15 
1915-16 
1915-16 
1915-16 
1915-16 
1915-16 
1915-16 
1915-16 
In storage house. 
Time 
in stor- 
age. 
Days. 
137 
106 
118 
103 
115 
110 
123 
114 
110 
1 1 5 
Weight 
at 
harvest 
time. 
Pounds. 
6,000 
84,000 
48,000 
90,000 
372,000 
168,000 
120,000 
48,000 
48,000 
Loss 
due to 
decay. 
Per cent. 
0.60 
.60 
1.50 
2.00 
1.50 
.60 
50 
1.00 
1.75 
984,000 
In baiLks or pits. 
Time 
in stor- 
age. 
Days. 
124 
106 
102 
103 
108 
110 
120 
114 
110 
110 
Weight 
at 
harvest 
time. 
Pounds. 
42,000 
4,500 
18,000 
30,000 
12,000 
6,000 
1,800 
60,000 
18,000 
12,000 
204, 300 
Loss 
due to 
decay. 
Per cent. 
10.00 
17.30 
33.30 
11.60 
7.30 
6.50 
6.40 
4.00 
35.00 
40.00 
14.33 
It is impossible to control the temperature and moisture in banks, 
therefore in unfavorable seasons nearly all potatoes stored in them 
are lost by decay. This was the case in many sections of the South 
during the cold winter of 1917-18, when the banked potatoes froze. 
More labor is required to store potatoes in banks than in houses, as 
the pits must be made each year. It is not always possible to remove 
the potatoes from banks when wanted, because of unfavorable weather 
conditions, as it is not safe to open a bank of potatoes during cold or 
rainy weather. Potatoes which have been stored in banks are of low 
quality and decay rapidly, probably owing to lack of complete curmg 
resulting in a watery potato. But even if potatoes stored in banks 
kept as well as those in storage houses, it would still be desirable to 
store in houses because of their greater convenience. 
COMPARISON OF THE KEEPING QUALITIES OF INJURED AND 
UNINJURED SWEET POTATOES. 
Some injury will result even with the most careful methods of 
harvesting and handling sweet potatoes. The plow or other harvest- 
ing implement cuts and bruises some of the potatoes. Some bruising 
is incidental to handling in the field a*id in storing. To determine 
the effects of cutting and bruising on shrinkage and decay in storage, 
potatoes injured at digging time were sorted and kept separate. 
For comparison, lots of uninjured potatoes of the same varieties 
were kept under like conditions. Three standard varieties were 
used in this experiment, which was conducted in the experimental 
storage house at the Arlington Experimental Farm. The results of 
this experiment are given in Table 3. 
