The Potato Industry of Colorado. 6i 
The work should be systematized, and each man have his job. 
The digger man should feed and clean his horses, and then have his 
breakfast while others harness the horses, so the digger can run at 
daylight. 
A Day's Work .—In potatoes yielding 12,000 pounds per acre, 
each picker should put on the sorter not less than 8,000 pounds per 
day, of nine or ten hours. Where the yield is larger and made up 
of big potatoes, 12,000 to 15,000 pounds are sometimes picked by a 
good man; and the grower should be willing to see such a picker in 
such potatoes make $5.00 a day. It pushes the deal along, and is 
worth the price, being often cheaper than day labor at $2.00 or $2.50. 
In cutting potatoes, 1500 pounds well cut is a good day's work, 
and 2500 requires a remarkable pace. In planting, four to seven 
acres should be put in with one planter per day. In sorting up and 
PLATE XX. 
Three Tons is a Standard Load of Potatoes for a Standard Potato Wagon 
sewing good potatoes in the cellar, fifty sacks or 6000 pounds is a 
fair day’s work per man, although expert crews have done three 
times that amount. 
HORSES FOR POTATO FARMING. 
Some Farms Can Use Heavy Horses .—The size of the draft 
animal for a potato farm is set by the work to be done. While 
1,600 to 1,800 pound horses are very desirable for breaking alfalfa 
and for hauling big loads, such animals are a damage in cultivating 
and digging, and are undesirable on long hauls because they cannot 
be trotted on the return road and last. Such horses are the thing 
for the grower close to the railroad switch, who plants wide. Aside 
from other considerations the smallness of mules’ feet and their 
