1912. 
GROWING SWEET POTATOES. 
How the Jersey Crop is Grown and Handled. 
Part III. 
STORING.—The conditions of successful storing 
are healthy tubers, that are not cut or bruised, and 
any room that is perfectly dry and can be kept above 
50 degrees and below 65 degrees, regardless of outside 
temperature, with strong light excluded. If stored 
in crates they are packed one upon another to about 
one to one-half foot from ceiling. When stored in 
bins dump them gently from the baskets into the bins, 
which can be of any convenient size. In the latter 
method they are more liable to get bruised; besides, 
the lack of circulating air during the sweating process 
gives them a much darker color than when stored in 
crates. Keep the temperature from 75 to 85 degrees, 
and ventilate on warm dry days by opening door or 
windows on the opposite side from the direction of 
the wind where no regular ventilating system is at 
hand, being careful to avoid drafts. As soon as 
sprouts appear the temperature should be lowered to 
about 60 degrees, but never allow it to go below 50 
degrees. Where rats and mice can be 
excluded there is little danger of loss, 
so long as the air is perfectly dry. Never 
touch or handle any sweet potatoes after 
storing until used or shifted, as they will 
not keep long after handling. Person¬ 
ally I use a concrete basement equipped 
with a hot water heating system. Pipe 
coils run close to the floor; over these 
slats are laid upon which the crates are 
placed. This method now in use several 
years gives excellent results, as the heat 
is evenly distributed, the lower crates get¬ 
ting as much heat as the upper ones. 
Potatoes taken from this storage room 
in July were in perfect condition and of 
good eating quality. Seed potatoes 
should be stored at as low a.temperature 
as possible, without danger of loss. 
Tubers that are sprouted too much be¬ 
fore bedding seem to have lost vitality 
and do not produce many sprouts after 
being placed in beds. 
SHIPPING.—Most sweet potatoes are 
shipped in hampers; in cold weather 
these are lined with paper to prevent 
freezing. To obtain best market prices 
they should be perfectly cleaned. This 
we do with a potato cleaner, a machine 
consisting of an incline of brushes which 
move rapidly in opposite directions, re¬ 
moving all dust, sand and fine rootlets, 
without bruising, leaving tubers clean 
and bright. After they come from the 
cleaner they are sorted and packed for 
shipment. Upon careful grading largely 
depends the success of the business. At 
least three grades should be made, as 
carefully packed marks are always in 
demand at profitable prices, even when 
the market is glutted with inferior 
grades. geo. h. liepe. 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
shade tree, instead of having it at work all of the 
time. It is a machine and therefore tireless, and this 
is its principal value over the use of horse teams. To 
get that value, an engine should work 10 hours per 
day, and it will in the hands of a competent man, as 
the manufacturers have learned much in the last few 
years, and are building their engines better than ever 
before. They will not work in extremely soft or 
muddy ground. It is therefore necessary that they be 
equipped with a hitch which will allow the engine to 
remain in the road while the scrapers work in the 
ditch. It is a mistake also to get one of the heaviest 
type, as it will unduly try the bridges in most rural 
sections. The engine of about 16 horse-power has 
usually been found most desirable in this section. 
Sullivan Co., N. Y. p. m. many. 
I see the question asked on page 317 about traction 
engines for road work. Our town bought one last 
year that was made for that kind of work, and' it did 
the work better than horses. I think that our town 
has about 175 miles of road to work, and they scraped 
the whole of it and rolled it too. The engine is a 
great horse saver, and I think that in every town 
SORTING SWEETS READY FOR SHIPMENT. Fig. 149. 
TRACTION ENGINES FOR ROAD 
WORK. 
I note your request on page 317 for 
information as to the use of traction 
engines for repairing and maintaining 
dirt roads in this State, and I am pleased 
to say that a considerable majority of the town high¬ 
way authorities in Delaware and Sullivan counties 
are now making use of either tractfon engines or 
road rollers for the purpose named with a degree 
of success which leads to the purchase of engines by 
additional towns each year, so that it will be only a 
short time before every township will be so equipped. 
They are also available as the power with which to 
run a stone crusher after grading has been done where 
improved roads are to be built. The roads in this 
country are as difficult to maintain as any dirt roads 
in New York State, as it is all a very mountainous 
region, and there is rather heavy traffic in lumber, 
stone, wood and the output of a number of factories 
devoted to the destruction and distillation of hard¬ 
wood, locally called acid factories, and the success al¬ 
ready apparent in this source of power for working 
the roads under these conditions does not seem to 
leave much room for failure in any other locality. 
They are, however, expensive pieces of machinery 
and should be handled by capable and industrious 
men. The only mistake that I have ever seen in my 
rather wide acquaintance with this matter, is to let 
the engine stand with its nose in a bank or under a 
A STORAGE ROOM FOR SWEET POTATOES. Fig. 150 . 
where the bridges are in good shape it will pay to have 
an engine. w. E. 
Ripley, N. Y. 
According to the report of the Town Bureau, De¬ 
partment of Highways for the State of New York, 
out of the 934 towns of the State about 60 per cent of 
them are equipped with traction power, either steam 
or gasoline, for the maintenance of their earth roads. 
In my own little county of Schenectady, with only 
about 400 miles of earth roads in the five towns in the 
county, we are using six steam outfits, three steam 
rollers and three steam tractors. As to the economy, 
I wish to point out the fact we are able to secure 
more and better results from one tractor, costing us 
to operate about $5 per day, without taking into con¬ 
sideration the initial outlay, than we possibly can with 
from three to five teams costing $5 per day each. 
Generally speaking a traction roller gives the best re¬ 
sults, as with this machine we are able to compact 
our roads and crush some of the clods and small 
stones, and in fact leave the road in better condition 
than the traction engine does, and they are also of 
more use in the building of stone roads, for if a town 
highway superintendent is provided with a good roller 
•423 
he is able to build a fair macadam road, if the stone 
is plenty and convenient, at a cost much less than 
our State highways are costing, but where the greater 
initial cost to the town of the roller over that of the 
tractor cannot readily be met, I would advise by all 
means the use of the tractor. As a means of com¬ 
paring the relative efficiency of traction power versus 
horse power, I would state that a good tractor or 
roller, properly handled, will haul two graders with 
one or more harrows hitched on behind to loosen any 
sods that may be found in the ditch, at a cost for fuel 
and oil. of from $2 to $2.50 per day, and for wages 
of engineer of from $2.75 to $3.50 per day. This does 
not take into consideration the first cost of the trac¬ 
tor, which in this State can be purchased on a lease 
plan, by which the payment of from $8 to $10 pet- 
day for the days the machine is actually used will 
pay for the cost of the machine in from four to five 
years, after which the towns own the machine and are 
able to secure from two to four times as much for 
their money as they could if they used teams for this 
kind of work. It is conceded by all practical road 
men in this State that for grading and hauling gravel 
for the maintenance of earth roads it 
is far more economical to use traction 
power than teams, and the local road 
authorities may secure 25 to 50 per cent 
more work with the funds at their dis¬ 
posal by following this method. It is 
essential, however, that the highway 
taxes be collected in cash, as it would 
probably be difficult to adopt this 
method of road work in connection with 
their old labor system of highway tax¬ 
ation. H. w. C. 
Schenectady, N. Y. 
THE MAIDEN BLUSH APPLE. 
In your report from nurserymen tell¬ 
ing of demand for different varieties of 
apples, I do not find the Maiden Blush 
mentioned. Growers are not planting 
this much now, I infer, but in my 
opinion it is too good a variety to drop, 
and I am showing my faith in it by 
planting an orchard this Spring. The 
Maiden Blush either as a tree or fruit 
lias but few faults. The tree is hardy, 
long lived, bears early and annually. 
The fruit is attractive, an excellent 
shipper, and makes good at the other 
end—the end we are all after in grow¬ 
ing apples. My record shows that 
Maiden Blush has sold for me for the 
last six years in the Philadelphia 
market at an average price of $3.80 per 
barrel on arrival. “On arrival” means 
the money in you pocket in a few days, 
and is in pleasing contrast with storage 
fruit, which means a wait of three or 
four months and a cold storage bill 
besides. Mr. Van Alstyne sounded a 
note of warning a few years ago when 
he said, “We are planting too many 
Winter apples to the exclusion of Fall 
varieties.” Every Fall there is an in¬ 
creasing demand in the markets for 
attractive soft eating varieties of apples. 
The Maiden Blush has been favorably 
known in the Philadelphia market for 
nearly 100 years. It brings better prices 
in this market than in New York— 
often $1 a barrel more. After all is 
said, what is the best commercial variety of apple? 
Nobody knows. The Rhode Island Greening has 
been our best money maker for over a quarter of a 
century, but we might plant this variety on another 
field and the result might be altogether different. In 
fact, I think we must admit, even in this enlightened 
day, the selection of a variety is more or less of a 
lottery. w. a. bassett. 
R. N.-Y.—A few years ago we met a man who had 
made a great success with a small orchard of Maiden 
Blush apples. The fruit was very superior, and 
brought high prices. This man sold his farm at a 
bargain on the strength of that orchard and invested 
the money in a larger farm about 10 miles away. 
There he started in to duplicate his success with the 
Maiden Blush apple by planting a large orchard. When 
the trees came in bearing the fruit was found to be 
quite inferior and would not command the price ob¬ 
tained from the other fruit. The fact was that the 
soil on the first farm was exactly suited to this variety, 
while on the other farm the conditions were such that 
it could not give its best development. Yet only a few 
miles separated them. The same thing is observed 
with other fruit varieties, though it is more pro¬ 
nounced with some varieties than with others. More 
and more fruit growing is coming to be a matter of 
selecting varieties exactly suited to soil and condi¬ 
tions. That is why one may well hesitate to lay down 
anv cast-iron rules of advice. 
