i6 
Colorado Experiment Station 
the time they are killed by the frost, the tubers are not mature, 
but are watery, and the skin peels off readily. When this^ condi¬ 
tion exists, the curing of the tubers after digging is very important. 
Where the best grade of potatoes are grown, and where they are 
wanted for storage, a good plan is to pick up the tubers after they 
are dry, and place in piles of 40 to 50 bushels, and cover slightly 
with straw. Where heavy frosts are apt to occur, the covering 
should be increased. After a few days, the potatoes will have 
gone through a curing process which will make their keeping 
qualities much better. This practice is not advisable where the 
potatoes are sold directly from the field and where the question 
o^ labor enters m. 
GRADING 
Ordinarily, the hand potato grader is the only grading 
machinery used on the farm. In many cases, no grading is done 
apart from the slight separation in the picking up of the potatoes 
after the digger. Where the hand grader is employed, the workers 
are usually so busy that the grading or screening is not thorough 
and little good is accomplished by it. 
The time has come when the potato grower must conform 
to some standard of grading for his potatoes in the same manner 
that the fruit grower conforms to the standard of grades in apples. 
It can be truthfully said that there is more waste in the potato 
crop due to poor handling and grading, than any crop raised on 
a farm. A conservative estimate of the waste shows that from 
15 to 25 per cent of the total potato crop harvested is wasted. This 
does not mean that the waste of the actual product is this high, 
for a portion of the waste is represented in dirt or soil which 
adheres to the tubers, and which is never separated from them. 
Though this waste is not equally large in all sections, yet the 
total figure is enormous. The largest waste comes from the 
presence of small, ill-shaped, and decayed tubers which cannot 
be utilized for food purposes, but on which the farmer is paying 
for containers, railroad freight, and commission charges. This 
waste should be left on the farm, and utilized for livestock feed. 
Further, the presence of small, gnarly, and diseased tubers grad¬ 
ually decrease the consumption of the potato and is the source 
of dispute between the commission man and the farmer. For the 
farmer’s own protection, the potatoes should be properly graded 
and marked, and the grade should be standardized so that inter¬ 
state shipments would be uniform. The State Potato Growers’ 
association endorsed and adopted the U. S. standard of grading 
as recommended by U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the 
U. S. Food Administration. It is as follows.* 
