Farm Field And Garden

Ju tue soil be clean and mellow, the patented potato diggers do good service, saving as these do both time and labor. On the majority of farm!, however, these diggers are not available, and in their absence a shovel plow wiM answer very well. Where the erop is dug by machine or plow, it is well after the bulk of tubers have been picked up to run a srnoothing harrow over the ground. Tliis will bring to light potatoes that have been covered up or bidden from sight. As a rule, the potatoes are left on the ground for a short time and then drawn to the cellar, roothouse or pit. A correspondent writing to the New York World says: "1 aim to harvest my potatoes as 6oon as 1 find they have stopped growiug. This can be easily told by the appearance of the tops. As long as a portion of the tops remains green it shows that the roots are at work and the tubers are increasing in size. After the tops die down and the skin remains smooth and firm on the tubers, as shown by rubbing them after they are dug, I prefer to have them in a cool cellar rather than in the ground where they grew. Potatoes should be dug in dry weather and be stored away in a dry condition. They should, however, be air dried and not sun dried, for exgosure to the sun for any considerable time is injurious both to their quality and color. On the average I coasider the potato as profitable a erop as I can raise, and about the only one where it pays me to buy fertilizer for it." In a tralletin issued from the North Carolina station a summary of the replies given by a number of southern growers about their inethods of winter storing of Irish potatoes makes it appear that all agree that the late erop is easy to keep. Many prefer to store in barrels or crates in an outbuilding; some spread on barn floors and cover with straw, but the majority prefer storing in hills outdoors and covering with earth. Nearly all agree on the necessity for keeping the potatoes cool and dark.