Two methods are employed in sorting the pota toes. It is usually necessary for those who sort for seed to separate the seed or small potatoes from the shipping potatoes, and also to cull out strings and other defective roots, fit neither for seed nor market. This may be done in the field, when those gathering the potatoes sort them in separate bas kets. When first-class help is used in gathering this is the most satisfactory way, as the potato is handled only once and is then placed in its proper class. On the other hand, with careless and indif ferent labor, such as is often necessary, the sort ing can best be done by a few picked hands work ing on benches at the storage house. The crop is then gathered promiscuously by the field hands, and, when dry, is hauled to the storage house, dumped on the tables and there sorted. By this means the best results in grading can be secured and the additional expense is not very great. The field pickers, having no discrimination to make, can gather the crop more quickly than when they are required to decide on the class of each potato. Five or six good sorters at the house will handle a couple of hundred barrels per day and often save, by careful and accur ate grading, many times their hire. The main requisite for the storage of sweet-potatoes in the middle states is a warm, tight building in which the crop can be placed when dug in the fall. This building may be a sin gle small room or may be of large size sufficient to hold several thou sand barrels, provided it can be heated and ventilated throughout. A single room in the cellar or in a building of any kind in which a stove can be placed and ventilation can be pro vided will suffice. For ordinary farm purposes, however, where sweet-pota toes are a main crop, a building of a size sufficient to meet the demands should be con structed especially for this purpose. One of the most desirable types of building is built on the plan of a bank barn. The lower or basement story is of
stone or brick and sits mostly in the ground, except the one exposed side or front in which are the windows and door. The stove may be placed in the center and bins arranged so that the nearest are some three feet from the stove. It is advisable to have the bins raised at least six inches from the floor, and it is best to have an air-space of a few inches between the bin-boards and the walls of the building. Ventilation can be arranged through the doors and windows, or ample top ventilation in the form of one or more trap-doors through the ceiling should be provided. If a second story is to be used, and this is very convenient, the top floor can be level with the ground above, and the upper room can be heated by an extra stove or by means of registers in the floor from the stove in the lower room. The bins may be large, even large enough to hold five or six hundred barrels, but as a rule it is better to divide the bins so that more or less air can get around and through the potatoes or under neath them. The building should be warm and tight, should have but few windows, which, if pos sible, should be on the south and east rather than on the north and west sides. Other conveniences in the way of passageways, platforms for handling the potatoes and sheds under which the wagons may be loaded and unloaded, add to the utility and success of the sweet-potato storage house just as may be the case with any warehouse.
For heating, a common wood stove answers fairly well, but some of the air-tight sheet-iron heaters have proved very successful. A good hard-coal stove with a self-feeding arrangement is a satisfactory type of heater. Hot-water heating is almost ideal, inasmuch as the hot-water pipes can be run around the floor, warming the cold exposed corners of the