E'Ae RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1005 
Farm Storage Problems 
The Nation will need every potato you can produce this yeart 
There will also be a big export demand. Get all of them. Adopt 
a better and cheaper method of digging your crop. Use a 
Hoover Potato Digger 
Digs fast and easily 
Gets all the tubers. Saves the backaches from hand digging. Digs from five 
to eight acres a day. Delivers all of the potatoes on top of the ground—easily seen 
and picked up. No weeds or trash to bother. This is delivered to the side of row. 
Picker attachment can be furnished which delivers potatoes in piles or in crates. 
Hoover Potato Diggers represent a better investment 
than ordinary diggers. They give more years of ser¬ 
vice and at less cost for upkeep. Made of steel and 
malleable castings almost entirely. Elevator rods are 
offset. This promotes better separation, and prevents 
potatoes from falling back on elevator. 
Hoover Diggers are built in different 
styles and sizes—there is a type that 
will meet your requirements. 
Write for Hoover Potato Digger Book¬ 
let. Mailed free. Ask for package P— 33. 
JOHN DEERE 
MOLINE, ILL. 
Potato Digger 
Gets the Potatoes and separates 
where other diggers cannot 
A strong statement, but an actual experience many times, saving 
growers more than the cost of the Digger. Ask us for the proof. 
The Eureka elevator and duplex shaker provide more separation than other diggers. 
Large wheels and main gears supply ample power. Mostly malleable and steel, avoiding 
frequent breakage and lost time. Growers report 
digging 80 or more acres without repairs. High . 
clearance over shovel prevents weeds and vines Write for 
bunching. Has vine-turner attachment. _ catalog 
G-ft. and 7-ft. sizes; several styles. 
Prompt shipments from distributing points. 
[eureka mower CO., Box 1016, Utica,N.Y. 
Storing Cabbage 
The country lias had a load of advice 
about canning and drying food for Win¬ 
ter use. Let us not forget the facts 
about Winter farm storage for fruit and 
vegetables. Many farmers grow good 
crops of garden vegetables, and then lose 
them because the storage place is too hot 
or too cold. We want to learn all we can. 
about pits and dug-outs and cellars for 
holdng garden and orchard food. Here 
is the picture of a cabbage pit taken from 
a Colorado bulletin. The cabbages are 
stored by placing them head down three 
in a row and two on top. making a tier 
of five cabbages, the roots extending ia 
Method of Storing Cabbage. Fig. 459 
the air. The pile may be as long as 
noce-ssary. Several inches of straw or 
leaves should then be put over the cab¬ 
bage and the same amount of earth 
thrown on them. Cabbage may be kept 
frozen solid without injury to the head, 
provided it is thawed out very gradu¬ 
ally. 
Improving a Root Cellar 
We have a root cellar ]Sxi)0 feet, with 
stone walls, dirt floor and concrete slab 
roof. The inside doors have ventilators 
top and bottom, which can be opened or 
.shut. At end away from door is a hol- 
loAV tile resting on brick fireplace. The 
difliculty seems to be too much moisture, 
and if ventilators wore left open in cold 
weather, freezing resulted. Should ven¬ 
tilators be closed in zero weather? 
Should there be more ventilators? The 
bins are slat-bottom and sides are solid. 
I would welcome any suggestions to im¬ 
prove our root cellar construction, and 
also as to managing the moisture and 
temperature. rerhaps a plan of ono 
rightly constructed might be valuable. 
This cellar is used for storing of apples, 
potatoes and Winter vegetables in gen¬ 
eral. E. c. J. 
Stockbridge, Mass. 
Different vegetables and roots make 
different conditions for storage. Where 
a large amount of fruit and vegetables is 
to be stored in the same building, it is 
well to have the building divided. Vege¬ 
tables and roots should have a cool place 
for storage. Fruit should have a drier 
utmo.si)here than roots or vegetables. It 
is iinpos.sible to try to store vegatables, 
roots and fruits in the same cellar and 
have them all preserved in first-class con¬ 
dition. There should be better ventilation 
and less moisture in an apple storage cel¬ 
lar than in a potato cellar. I would 
recommend that you divide root cellar in¬ 
to at least two compartments, using one 
compartment for potatoes and the other 
for apples and other fruits. 
The partition should be solid from 
floor to ceiling. A partition wall of hol¬ 
low clay block would be cheap aud satis¬ 
factory. There should be a separate ven¬ 
tilation system for each room. The pres¬ 
ent inside doors with ventilators at the 
top and bottoms will serve as fresh air 
intakes. The outlet flue should not ex¬ 
tend down into the room. The warm 
aud moisture laden air rises to the top 
of the room and thus with the outlet near 
the coiling the moisture will be removed 
from the cellar. 
Dampers should he placed in all ventil¬ 
ator flues so that ventilation and temper¬ 
ature can be controlled. In cold weather 
it may become necessary to nearly close 
the ventilators. In extremely cold weath¬ 
er artificial heat may be used to prevent 
freezing. A more constant temperature 
can be held in a cellar if the walls that 
are exposed to the weather are lined with 
hollow clay block. I have assumed from 
the diagram that the root cellar is built 
on a hillside. The amovint of moisture 
in the cellar may be reduced by placing 
tile drains around the cellar to a depth 
of one foot below the cellar floor. A con¬ 
crete floor would also help to remedy this 
difliculty to some extent, k. c. iiilleu. 
Ohio. 
Moth Damage to Stored Food 
Will you suggest something that will 
drive from a store the little millers that 
lay their eggs in dried fruits and cereals? 
Connecticut. w. L. ii. 
There is no way to rid a store of in¬ 
sects infesting dried fruits and cereals 
except to clean out all infested materi¬ 
al. This may be utilized for chicken • 
feed. It Avould certainly be a bad policy 
to have it get into the hands of one’s 
customers for they would be likely to 
deal elsewhere in the future. These pests 
often breed in cracks nnd crevices where 
their food has been spilled and in broken 
packages of cereals and in broken bags of 
meal and flour that are held in stock for 
some time. Shelves and bins should be 
carefully cleaned with hot water and 
soap and the cracks and corners treated 
with gasolene. It would also pay to keep 
the goods moving briskly and keep the 
stock fresh. Care should be exercised in 
buying so as not get an overstock of ma¬ 
terial likely to become infested. Wherever 
possible such material should he kept in 
tight cans, hags or boxes; they should 
not be left exposed to the air. I do not 
think it would be practicable to attempt 
to fumigate a store for the destruction of 
these pests. c. R. crosry. 
Storing Potatoes in Pits 
We are going to have a large crop of 
potatoes in this locality. We would like 
to be informed as to the i)roper method 
of storing potatoes in a pit in the ground. 
We have no cellars for this purpose. Is 
this method usually successful and if so, 
can you give ns description of procedure? 
Fust Templeton, Mass. o. w. s. 
!Make several small pits rather than a 
single large one. Four by six feet and 
four feet deep is a good size. Locate in 
a convenient well-drained place. Fill the 
pit as fast as the potatoes are dug aud 
cover at first with six or eight inches of 
straw and over that enough earth to 
make it a foot deep of temporary covering. 
He sure to let some of the straw stick 
up through .the earth for ventilation 
Later when there is danger of freezing, 
put on another foot of earth and eight¬ 
een inches to two feet of loose manure, 
litter or leaves, but leave a small open¬ 
ing down through the center, filliug it 
loosely with upright straw for further 
airing in the warm weather that often 
comes again before winter. Ventilation 
is not needed after cold weather sets in 
to .stay. The heap above the pit should 
he well rounded off and covered with long 
brush or boards to hold litter in place. 
I’it storage is successful if done with 
judgment and experience, but I would not 
advise a beginner to risk a large crop 
the first time. The dangers are from 
freezing and from lack of ventilation at 
the right time. The potatoes can be 
taken out only during mild weather. A 
cellar is better, because conditions are 
under close control and the potatoes may 
be seen any time. I’otato culture is in- 
croa.sing so fast and successfully in your 
town and nearby that a co-operative frost 
proof storehouse near the shipping sta¬ 
tion may soon be advisable. g. b. f. 
Heat from Water 
I am planning a temporary storehouse 
for my potatoes, and my State bulletin 
tells me that on cold nights, when there 
is danger of freezing, I should put in a 
lighted lantern or oil stove, which is rea¬ 
sonable enough, or a tub of water to pre¬ 
vent freezing. Water is cheaper than 
kerosene, let alone the fire risk, but will 
it work, and why? a. j. v. 
Connecticut. 
It will work, if the house is quite tight 
and the water is renewed often and is 
fairly bulky compared with the space. 
The reason is that a given bulk of water 
carries more heat than an equal mass of 
anything else we know; tTiat is. It takes 
more heat, energy, to heat it, and more 
cold, absence of energy, to take away its 
store of heat. So that a pail of water at, 
say, 50>, has in it all the energy that 
would be used to raise it from freezing to" 
50o, and it will slowly give out that ener¬ 
gy, that is, it will resist freezing, till ex¬ 
actly that much heat has been given out, 
or, conversely, till the water is again 
just at freezing. (To freeze it you must 
take out another lot of heat, but that is 
another story.) So that a pail of water 
at 50o is as hot to a block of ice as it 
would be to your hand at Iloo, in round 
numbers, of course, aud the wanner the 
water the more energy stored in it, up 
to the point where the bits of water are 
going so hard they break from the surface 
as steam, that is. to its boiling point. 
Hut you must keep renewing the tub of 
water as it cools down, and it may he 
that to do this will cost more than to 
buy kerosene. f. u. c. 
HAY 
Stack, wagon and implement covers: 
waterproof or plain canvas. Plant bed 
cloth, tents, etc. Circulars, samples. 
HENRY DERBY 
453 Y St. Paul’s Ave., Jersey City, N. 
BOOKS on all subjects of farming by leading 
authorities are for sale by The Rural Nevr* 
Yorker, 333 West Thirtieth Street, New Yo 'k 
Wagons That Stand Up 
T3 EAR this point in mind the next time you 
^ buy a wagon— Columbus and Weber 
wagons are guaranteed to stand up under 
capacity loads. You don’t have to be a wagon 
expert to buy a Columbus or Weber wagon safely. 
All you really need to know is the weight of your 
heaviest loads. Buy a wagon marked to carry that 
load and we guarantee safety and satisfaction worth 
more to you than all the talking points of all the 
wagons in the market put together. 
Ask any dealer who carries Columbus or Weber wagons to 
show you just what we mean by this statement, or write to us 
for full information. Our wagons have many good features 
-|-the International fifth wheel, the sandboard wear plate, 
link end rods, folding end gate, superior material — more 
features than you will find on any other wagon. All these 
help to give the good service, long life and economy that you 
get with Columbus or Weber wagons. See the wagon or 
write to us before you buy again. 
International Harvester Company of America 
(Incorporated) 
CHICAGO V USA 
Champion Deering McCormick Milwaukee Osborne 
