STORAGE OF POTATOES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 430, 13 January 1912, Page 3

STORAGE OF POTATOES.

This was made the subject of an investigation at the Central Experimental Farm of the Department of Agriculture, Canada, and the results are included in the report, recently issued, of the chief chemist. The potatoes were kept in baskets placed in a cellar of one of the farm buildings, where fairly good conditions prevailed. It was cool and dry, with sufficient ventilation to prevent heating without unduly drying out the tubers. It was found that the los 3 amounted during the first 87 days tc 8.1 percent, of the weight; during subsequent 101 days to 2.S per cent.; during subsequent ;25 days to 0.6 per cent. The total loss in weight was 11.5 per cent. The experiment, conducted from October to May, seems to prove that under ordinarily good conditions mature potatoes lose something like 10 per cent, of their weight, which is due to the dying out of the tubers. Very late (immature) potatoes may lose twice that percentage. The probabilities are that when kept in large quantities in bins or bags under similar conditions to those descrbied, the percentage of loss would be somewhat less than the percentage recorded in the experiment.