STORING POTATOES.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 346, 8 April 1884, Page 5

STORING POTATOES.

The crops of potatoes having generally proved to be so large and good this year, says a recent number cf • Land and Water,' many gardeners as well as, farmers must be at their wit's -end* as to how to store their crops. 'There is nothing like large dry sheds with a firm dry bottom on which to {store the, tubers ; but failing any conveniences for indoor housing, the process: of pitting must be 'resorted to. think that, as a rule, owing to the particular nature 1 of the f season, the main /and , la,te cro v ps have been lifted much^ldter tttad. usualv But we will jsuppose.^ as is* ho doubt the case, thai, "V^a't^nfti^ ifi heaps,- covered, of'cburse,^ 'rea^dy 'for being stored. It should always be A^ in«mirid, aa'a, general rule' in , the ' , management of potatoes C lhat from .the time they are taken out of the ground till they are to be cooked they i should be exposed to light as little 1 as possible. If, after having been dug up, they must lie on the ground for, but one day, or even less, they should be completely covered from light until they are pitted. If stored in a loft, cellar, or any such place, light should be entirely excluded; if in a building, to the interior of which light must be admitted, it should nevertheless be prevented from reaching the tubers by some close covering. And the potatoes must also be excluded from frost, which is easy enough in a covered building, but more difficult when pitted. And while frost must be guarded against, precautions are at the same time necessary to preserve the tubers from being contaminated by gases arising from fermentation and from rotting. In choosing materials for protection from frost, care should be taken to avoid using such as will on contact taint the flavor of the potatoes. In pitting potatoes the form of a ridge is more convenient than that of a cone, because wnen portions are taken out for use the breach in the end of the ridge can be more easily closed than one in the side of a conical heap. The ridge should be run in the direction of north and south, so that if it be necessary to open it in frosty weather that may be done at the north end when the sun's rays at noon will prevent that part from being frozen. It may be about three feet high, but not more than four feet from the base, and as high as the potatoes can be conveniently pitted up ; and it should not be formed on wet heavy ground, but on that which is poor and dry and on a slope. In throwing up the soil for covering a trench will be formed at the base of the ridge, and this trench should he made deepest at one end, from whisfr a track should be cut, so that water may not collect in the trench, which ought in all cases to be lower than the base of the ridge. In dry soil the latter may be sunk a few inches, but if otherwise, the potatoes should be laid quite on the surface of the ground. Soil is best next the tubers, and the poorer it is the better. The use of straw admits of the potatoes being taken out comparatively free from earth ; but as it decays from contact with the soil it injuriously affects their flavor. Dry turf may be laid next the potatoes to prevent loose soil from mixing with them, After covering eight or nine inches thick of soil, it is a good plan to thatch the ridge with straw, fern, rushes, or any other material, to keep out wet and frost. Potatoes intended to be kept till late in the spring should be placed in a shaded position, where the sun's rays cannot affect the ridges. If the soil of these should happen to be frozen in spring to the depth of a few inches, then by covering thickly with straw the potatoes may be kept from pushing much longer than would otherwise be the case,