The Potato Industry oe Colorado. 47 
* r local warehouse. In those districts where the winter climate is 
Lticu arlv severe, and where it is difficult because of cold weather 
or bad roads to take the potatoes from store house to market there 
is more of a tendency to sell potatoes direct front the field regar dless 
of nrice at digging time, and in districts where the rainfall is ex¬ 
cessive there is°also the objection that storage houses are not so 
easily kept dry as in the arid regions of the West 
In Colorado there is seldom a time when potatoes cannot b 
taken from the farm to the market. As a result our potato growers 
have taken advantage of the favorable conditions for storing and 
a characteristic and unique system of storing has been developed. 
Our growers thus avoid glutting the markets during t e 'oS'W 
period in the fall, and take advantage of any brief bulge in the 
price during the winter. The history of this system shows that it 
fs not an invention but a gradual growth from the idea of storing 
in pits to the perfected ventilated potato ceUarsthat aixfoundm 
Colorado today. This system we consider one of the great ieatures 
of the Colorado industry and is well worth the careful stu y o a 
potato producers who do not already understand its principles. 
POTATO CELLAR CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT. 
Cost of Construction per Hundred Weight of Potatoes. Thi , 
in the best grade cellars, is about 20 cents. With a permanent 1 oof 
over the dirt roof, the cost will be at least 5 cents more, an 1 
grower wishes to provide for seed potato storage, an rave a an 
some cellar for sales purposes, he may spend as much as 3© cent 
per hundred weight of potatoes to be stored. On the other ha , 
with cheap construction, without much regard to permanence, and 
with the use of farm labor, as little as 7 cents per hundred weight 
on a large cellar may provide good safe storage. Interest and sink¬ 
ing fund on this basis make the cost of cellar as a minimum one 
cent per hundred of capacity per yeai. 
l Sise of Cellars.— Each square foot of floor space within a 
cellar will carry 200 pounds of potatoes, piled five feet deep, 01 240 
pounds pei square foot six feet deep. Thus a cellar 50x100 feet 
will hold one million or one million two hundred thousand pounds of 
potatoes, with the driveway filled. It is wise to have a cellar large 
enough to care for the crop if piled four feet deep. 
Driveways and End Doors.- A large cellar should have a 
rlrivpwav clear through it, with doors at each end. This saves 
backing- into the cellar, or makes the potatoes at each end accesible, 
when the cellar is full. It also makes quick and romplete Vel Ja l £X 
easv At the same time driveways take space, and the extra bulk 
head and double doors are expensive and let in ^,‘-3 shouW 
cellars are often built with only one doorway. Such cellars should 
be arranged, however, so the center at the rear can be emptied eat y 
