Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1898 — Marketing Early Potatoes. [ARTICLE]

Marketing Early Potatoes.

• To those who are unfamiliar with potato growing, the high prices which early potatoes command might seem to make it an object to dig a large part of the crop and market it while the price is up. But there are several drawbacks in marketing potatoes early. The weather is hot, and while the skins of potatoes are tender, they will rub off their jackets if handled freely, and the potatoes are then almost sure to rot. Hence the.v are never sent far or tn large quantities, In digging potatoes early there is great waste, as only a few of the largest are of marketable size, and those that will sell would grow still larger if left a fewdays longer in the hill. We have seen growers put their hand into a potato hill and pull off those potatoes that they found large enough, leaving the small ones to grow. But this is only practicable on a small scale. —American Cultivator. ,