. Vegetable gardening. A manual on the growing of vegetables for home use and marketing . of ventilation. In milder sections, pota-toes are stored through the winter in such pits, but it is impracticable here. However, even in Minnesota, potatoes may be safe- POTATO. 197 ly kept over vinter in trenches or pits made below the ground,although a good cellar is a more desirable place. For thispurpose the pit should not be large; a good size is four feet wideand deep and not more than six feet long. It should be filledheaping full with the potatoes and covered with six inches ofstraw and eighteen o
. Vegetable gardening. A manual on the growing of vegetables for home use and marketing . of ventilation. In milder sections, pota-toes are stored through the winter in such pits, but it is impracticable here. However, even in Minnesota, potatoes may be safe- POTATO. 197 ly kept over vinter in trenches or pits made below the ground,although a good cellar is a more desirable place. For thispurpose the pit should not be large; a good size is four feet wideand deep and not more than six feet long. It should be filledheaping full with the potatoes and covered with six inches ofstraw and eighteen of soil. Ventilation is given until cold weath-er sets in and the potatoes are cooled off. The whole pit shouldthen be covered with enough litter or manure (generally abouttwo feet) to keep out the frost. Such pits can only be opened inmild weather. If this work is well done, the potatoes will be infine condition in the spring, but beginners are very apt to failof success in this method of storing, and they should attempt itonly on a small scale. It is better to make several pits close. varieties of early potatoes. 1—Ohio Jr. 2—Early Ohic3-Burpees Extra Early. 4-Early Harvest. 5-Freeman. 6-Good Ne^^s. together rather than one large one, since in a large one the pota-toes are more likely to sweat. The sunlight should not be al-lowed to shine on them for any length of time, since it causesthem to turn green and develops a poisonous substance in kept in a cellar, the bins are improved by having slatted floorsand sides, so that there muy be some circulation of air throughthem to prevent heating at the bottom. The bins should not belarge nor more than five feet deep. There is a great differencein the keeping qualitiec of varieties; as a rule the early kinds are 198 VEGETABLE GARDENING. hard to keep from sprouting in the latter part of winter, and thelate kinds keep the best. Starch.—When potatoes are low in price, they can often beprofitably worked into starch, but for
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