The interior arrangement.—The interior arrange ment of the root cellar will depend on the use to which it is to be put. If for the storage of beets, turnips or carrots for stock-food, it should be ar ranged to store them in bulk without the construc tion of bins. If it is desirable to store several kinds of roots in the same cellar and keep them separate, then the construction of bins will be desirable. Usually it will be best to use only earth or concrete floors, the partitions for the bins being made of plank or concrete.
Special types of storage houses.
Besides the types of storage structures already described, there are in use among the producers, as well as dealers in root crops, structures which are designed to carry such products as are injured by freezing through the severe weather of the winter. Preeminent among the crops which are thus stored may be mentioned onions, sweet-potatoes, Irish potatoes and celery.
Houses for sweet-potatoes, onions and Irish rota toes.—In general, the types of construction of stor age houses used for the storage of the sweet potato, onion and Irish potato, are very much the same. They are usually built above ground or as bank structures, part of the basement being be neath the surface of the ground, and so arranged as to be conveniently approached by wagon and by water or railway transportation facilities. Build ings for this purpose are built of stone, concrete or wood, the walls being made as nearly frost proof as possible. When brick, stone or concrete structures are employed, the walls are so con structed as to carry a dead-air space. In addition to this they are usually furred out and lined with paper and matched lumber. If stone or concrete is used, either hollow blocks or solid walls are built and furred out as above described. In frame con struction, 2 x 6 or 2 x 8 studding are employed, and paper is placed between the studding so as to divide the space between the front and back of the studding, so that when paper flooring and ceiling are placed on the two sides a double space is formed. It is customary to place on the outside matched sheeting, a layer of paper and weather boarding, and on the inside matched boards, paper, furring strips, paper and another layer of matched lumber, thus making three dead-air spaces in the wall. Such buildings, built entirely above ground and located in the extreme northern potato regions of the United States, are practically frost-proof.
The precaution which is taken in the storage of perishable products in such buildings is to keep the products from contact with the outside walls.
In the case of storage houses for sweet-potatoes which are built much after the manner described, they need not, in the regions in which sweet-pota toes are grown, be provided with so many dead-air spaces. The potatoes are usually stored in bulk in bins which are kept from the outside wall by slat cribbing placed about eighteen inches from the outside wall. The sweet-potatoes are harvested as soon as the first frost injures the vines. The pota toes are dug so as to dry as thoroughly as possible in the field. They are then carefully gathered into small baskets holding five-eighths to one bushel, and car ried, preferably on spring wagons, to the storage house, where they are placed in large heaps in a stor age room, which is kept by means of artificial heat at a temperature of about 80 ° to 85 ° throughout the harvest period, and for at least ten days or two weeks thereafter. A common practice is to place the potatoes in layers about two feet deep, which may be separated by pine needles or some dry ab sorbent material which will act as an insulation to the different layers. With these facilities and proper ventilation, provided the tubers are not in contact with the earth or a concrete floor, but rather on a board floor elevated some fifteen or eigh teen inches from the earth, and so arranged that cold air shall not be admitted after the curing period has passed, the potatoes can be kept very success fully until February or March, or even on to the bedding period for the next year's crop.
Irish potatoes may be stored in bulk in cribs similar to those described for sweet-potatoes. A more common practice, however, is to store them in bushel crates or in gunny sacks ; but bags or gunny sacks are likely to be unsatisfactory. If they are stored in crates they are placed in tiers about five or six crates wide, and as high as the crates can be conveniently placed in the room. If stored in sacks, the tiers are about three to five sacks wide and sometimes ten sacks high. This arrangement pro vides an alley-way between the different lines of stored material, whether in sacks or in crates.