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Grading. The proper grading of potatoes is essential to success. Scabby, second-growth, ill-shapen, diseased, and undersized tubers must be removed from first-class grade. The grading may be done by having a sand screen on trestles set at such an angle that the potatoes roll down into baskets at the bottom, while the dirt falls through, and the seconds and refuse are thrown into baskets or boxes on the side. Let two men sort and one shovel, and have one emptying and bagging if they go into bags. A sack-holder is a convenience in filling the bag. The small potatoes and dirt may be removed by a potato-sorter (Fig. 49), of which there are several types on the market.

Packages. Potatoes are sold by the pound, peck, bushel, barrel, cental, and car lot. The early potatoes are shipped in barrels holding 3 bushels (180 pounds). A canvas cover is nailed on the head. Such barrels cost about 20 cents, including the cover. The late crop is sometimes shipped in bulk in car lots. In the East seed potatoes are shipped in double-headed barrels containing 165 pounds, net. Such barrels cost, new, about 30 to 33 cents. Flour-barrels are often purchased at about 15 cents each instead. The high price of new barrels leads some to ship seed potatoes in strong burlap sacks which hold the same amount as a barrel. The sacks cost 15 to 20 cents less than the barrel. Boxes are used for shipping small quantities. On the Pacific Coast burlap sacks holding a cental (100 pounds), and costing 5 cents each, are used.

Barrels. Before filling, drive the hoops firm on the bottom and nail with shingle nails; drive on the bulge

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FIG. 49-GRADING AND BARRELING POTATOES FOR MARKET

hoops, and secure with 3 or 4 barrel nails; then proceed to fill. The potatoes should be shaken down occasionally while filling, and the barrels filled full, and, if headed, the head should be put in where it belongs with a screw press, so that the potatoes cannot rattle. The head should be nailed firmly with shingle nails. If in bags, sack them up well, and tie tight; or sew up, according to requirements.

Bushel Boxes.-For marketing early potatoes in the local market bushel boxes or crates are often used. T. B. Terry uses a bushel box 13 x 16 inches and 13 inches deep, all inside measurement. The sides and bottoms are of 3%-inch, and the ends are 58-inch, white wood. Hand-holes are cut in each end, and the upper corners are bound with galvanized hoop iron to strengthen them. They cost $25.00 to $30.00 per hundred at the factory, and weigh 6 to 7 pounds each. Each box has a lid, so that in changeable weather the potatoes can be picked up and covered as fast as dug. This box holds five pecks. The legal bushel for grain is 2,150.4 cubic inches, and in measuring potatoes the rule is to heap the half-bushel measure sufficiently to add one level peck to the two level half-bushels. Five level pecks are held in 2,688 cubic inches. These boxes hold 2,700 cubic inches when level full; hence, they may be piled three or four high on a wagon. The recent introduction of a crate in which the sides fold onto the bottom when not in use reduces the amount of storage room required by about two-thirds. These crates cost the same as others, and appear to be equally strong.

Advantages of a bushel box:

1. Potatoes are put in the boxes and covered as soon as dug, thus preventing them from heating in

the sun.

2. They are easily and quickly loaded on a wagon, saving time.

3. They are convenient packages in which to carry early potatoes to the home market.

4. The potatoes may be left at the store in the box and delivered in the box when sold, saving handling

and bruising.

5. When drawing the main crop to the storage-cellar they are convenient to handle.

6. They may be used for storing seed potatoes, apples, etc., and carrying seed potatoes to the field to be planted.

CHAPTER XV

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND FEEDING VALUE

Composition.-Early attempts were made to determine the food value of the potato by means of chemical analyses. In 1795 Pearson reported "Experiments and observations on the constituent parts of the potato root." Einhof published analyses of the potato in 1805, as did Vanquelin in 1817. Rather more than fifty years ago Emmons in this country reported analyses. Lawes and Gilbert devoted considerable time to the study of the composition of potatoes, and more recently various agricultural experiment stations, notably the Connecticut State and the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Stations, the Division of Chemistry, U. S. D. A., and various European institutions have been investigating the problem. The approximate chemical composition of a number of varieties is: Water, 75 per cent.; protein, 2.50 per cent.; ether extract, .08 per cent.; starch, 19.87 per cent.; fibre, .33 per cent.; other non-nitrogenous materials, .77 per cent.; ash, I per cent. A more extended analysis is taken from the Vermont Experiment Station, report 1901:

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