Outdoor Sweet Potato Storage

A view of an outdoor storage pit with the side broken away so that the interior construction shown by dotted lines may be seen. This pit holds from 30 to 40 bushels. The construction is simple. First, a level bed a about 6 inches high and from 8 to 10 feet in diameter is formed by shoveling some of the surface soil into a heap and then smoothing it out. Then two small trenches b about 4 to 6 inches wide and deep are dug at right angles across the bed, bisecting each other at the center. Boards as shown are laid over these trenches to keep the air space free. At the point of intersection c of the trenches a ventilator flue d made of boards about 4 to 5 inches wide nailed closely together is set up as shown in dotted lines; this is to provide for the ventilation of the roots; the flue must be held in place by one man until the potatoes have been piled high enough around it to hold it in place.

Before the sweet potatoes are piled on it, the floor of the pit should be covered with from 2 to 4 inches of some dry, porous material, such as hay, straw, leaves, pine needles, etc.; if the ground is inclined to be damp, a board floor should be laid on the bed before the potatoes are piled on it. The sweet potatoes e should then be piled around the flue d as shown, a few inches of hay, straw, etc. as shown at f laid over the outside of the roots, and then this loose material covered with from 5 to 6 inches of soil g. The trenches b and the flue d are kept open until there is danger of the roots becoming frozen, when the top of the flue is covered with a cap, or lid, h, and the outer ends of the trenches are banked up with soil.