FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
125 
cilled on the top and side, it is laid down, 
so that the finished barrels can at once 
be distinguished by the wagoner. One 
man this year sorted under cover, but 
this involves a lot of extra handling and 
is not likely to prevail unless the pack 
is much improved by it. The immature 
potatoes skin easily, so they need care¬ 
ful handling. They are well shaken 
down in the barrel and the head is 
forced home with a lever press. 
packing. 
Florida potatoes, to bring top prices, 
must not only be well sorted, but well 
packed. The last potato crowded in is 
worth the first three. 
Barrels are usually too much ven¬ 
tilated. Sixteen one-inch auger holes 
in the sides of a barrel are sufficient. 
Potatoes have often left Hastings in such 
a ventilated barrel, so wet by the rain 
that water ran out of the holes when 
loading, and yet they reached New 
York in fine shape. 
Too much ventilation causes the po¬ 
tato to shrink and to lose its bright new 
look. 
We are mostly all-rail shippers, de¬ 
spite the 20 cents or so additional cost 
over boat freight. This is not all notion, 
either. 
Most people seem to believe that treat¬ 
ing potatoes as a fancy product is a huge 
joke. Prof. Rolfs’ advice in his book 
on Vegetable Growing, to use old crates 
and disreputable barrels, is the worst 
possible. A nice, large, new eleven- 
peck barrel is none too good for the best 
trade; to use a crate of any kind is, I be¬ 
lieve, to throw away money. The West¬ 
ern markets do, however, quote early 
potatoes by the crate. They are not so 
progressive in this as the Eastern mar¬ 
kets. 
If a pack is uniformly good in uniform 
barrels, if it is such that you would rush 
to buy any barrel in a lot in preference 
to any other barrel in any other lot, be¬ 
cause you were certain of what you were 
getting; then the way to get the best 
money from the crop is to ship in such 
a way that the brand can become known, 
so that it will be called for. When that 
point is reached, the commission man is 
able to ask 50 cents or a dollar above 
what just as good but miscellaneous 
stock is selling for, and when a glut 
comes this stock sells first and best. A 
good reputation is money in the truck 
market. 
Hastings potatoes will average to 
bring the shipper from $2 to $4 cash per 
barrel for the season. The yield is 
from anything up to eighty-five barrels 
per acre; thirty is considered poor, fifty 
good. Gross expense runs from $50 up. 
A BIG ACRE YIELD. 
The following is an account of an av¬ 
erage acre of my own last year. This 
includes cost of all mule and man labor 
at hiring prices: 
Rent of ground .$ 5 00 
Preparation of ground. 3 30 
Fertilizing, harrowing in and 
ridging. 2 60 
Cutting and planting seed. 2 00 
Fertilizer.23 10 
Seed potatoes. 10 88 
Barrels. 18 30 
Tending. 3 65 
Digging, barreling and hauling. . 12 73 
Other expenses . 4 00 
$85 56 
