34 The Colorado Experiment' Station. 
general fall may be evenly distributed, and all knolls and hollows 
are eliminated. A good farm level, a four horse Fresno scraper, 
with wheelers for long hauls, and infinite labor and perseverance are 
required for this job, but it pays big dividends in quantity and 
quality of crop, and in water and labor saved. 
EROST. 
High Altitude and the close proximity of snow clad mountains 
make us liable to sudden frosts, both late in the spring and early in 
the fall. The young potato plants are nipped even in June, early 
frosts are apt to catch tubers unprotected by a good layer of earth, 
and our mountain passes render us liable to sudden freezing in 
shipment. 
Growing Potatoes are best protected by water, and air drain¬ 
age. The bottoms of valleys and such spots as are protected by 
trees or otherwise from air movement are most liable to frost dam¬ 
age. Recently watered* fields, or fields on which water is running, 
are least liable to injury by frost. So when a frost is predicted it 
is wise, other things being equal, to use all the available water, and 
if the field cannot be all irrigated, to use the water in every third 
of fourth row. 
Protective Ditching and prompt digging are the remedies for 
frost damage to tubers. The Pearl and other varieties which set 
shallow, and long or large potatoes or those on long stems which 
run close to the side of the hill are liable to be nipped by frost. So 
ditches need to be narrow and straight sided as possible, and the 
soil taken from the ditch should be spread over the top of the hills. 
For this purpose there is as yet nothing equal to the Kersey Ditcherf 
with “side shoves,” although we think some of the nearly vertical 
sweeps may be equipped for this work. 
Damage in Shipping is made less liable by putting a false 
bottom or thick layer of straw on the floor of the refrigerator car 
and by packing the sides with paper and straw. Salamanders 
(small stoves) are used to thoroughly warm the cars up to train 
time, and shippers from northern states are obliged to send men 
with the cars to tend stoves, but always with a large expense and 
some losses by fire. In Maine, there is a line of oil heated cars in 
use to Boston and New York that make shipment safe in any 
weather. For our use, steam heated cars with thermostats con- 
*We might expect the cells of well watered sappy plants to be 
easiest broken by freezing, but such is not the case with potatoes nor 
with alfalfa or the leaves of our cottonwoods. 
fThis ditcher was developed in a district where there is very little 
fall and is there popular because of its clean large straight sided ditches. 
It is cheaply made by the local blacksmith and in sizes needed for the 
slope or variety raised on the particular farm. 
