Excerpt from American Agriculturalist, Volume 38, 1879.

Keeping Potatoes Through the Winter

In cold weather, when the temperature can be regulated, potatoes keep well enough, but in warm cellars, or during warm spells, I find it difficult to prevent their starting, and we have to rub off the sprouts.

To ventilate potatoes

I saw at Dr. Hexamer's, a few weeks ago, a contrivance which it seems strange has never been described and figured by the agricultural papers. The doctor takes any old boards or strips, and with them makes little bottomless bins about 2-1/2 feet to 3 feet square, and 2 feet high—at any rate, large enough to hold 5 bushels with tolerable accuracy. The corner pieces project an inch below the over-most strip, and fall short the same amount at the top. Three of these bins constitute a set; two of them are alike, but the one to go in the bottom has a bottom to it, and a cheaply made slide-door on one side.

When the potatoes are harvested, these bins are filled, the bottom one first of course; then another is set upon the top and filled, and so on. Thus 15 bushels are held in a very compact space, and yet the air passes freely through them. These sets of bins are placed side by side with the sliding-doors accessible.