Daily Kennebec Journal

Harvesting Potatoes.

It is no easy work to harvest potatoes. The process of digging with the common hoe is slow, tiresome and perplexing. With the prong hoe it is but little better. In either case the tubers must be taken out, one by one, by hand or the dextrous use of the implement. In case of numerous small ones the work is tedious. If a horse-power digger can be used, there is a relief and a saving expense. But the potato digger is not yet an established entity. It may exist but the world don't know it, and of course have no confidence in it. When one is found that will do its work like the mower, the seed sower, the apple evaporator, many a farmer will find relief therein. But he must wait awhile.

Now is the time of digging. Already fields are fit for the harvest. The tops are dead, the stalks are dry. These may be harvested at once. They are ripe and may be put into the cellar. Besides the season is right for it. Don't delay until cold weather comes, when half the tubers have been ruined by rot, and the remainder are half destroyed by worms. We believe in harvesting potatoes when they are ripe, even if it be in the middle of August. When dug, let them dry, but not sunburn, put in only sound tubers, bin them, keep dry and in the dark, let them have ventilation and there will be no danger.