374 [Senate 



I visited a field where the potatoes were unlifted, a short time sincej 

 and the disease was making rapid progress, not a sound one did I see. 



Query 23. — How woukl you recommend that the potatoes sliould be 

 stored during winter 1 Will a sprinkling of slaked or unslaked lime^ 

 or of salt, or pounded charcoal, or charred peat, or wood ashes, or 

 chloride of lime, be beneficial '? Will washing the potatoes clean, and 

 then picking and drying them before storing, help to preserve them 1 



All agree, that, as a preliminary to storing, it is of the last impor- 

 tance that the potatoes should be dry, that if possible they should be 

 lifted in a dry time, and spread out as much as practicable in open 

 barns or sheds. After careful picking over they may be pitted, and 

 nearly all here also agree, that it is beneficial to dust them with hot 

 slaked lime or gypsum. They should be put in small pits not more 

 than eight, or ten cwt. per yard for instance, and lightly covered with 

 straw alone. 



Mr. Smith, Ladyland, Dumfriesshire, says, "The way in which 

 my potatoes are keeping best is in large, well ventilated houses, and 

 in the pits covered with straw alone, thatched and roped precisely in 

 the same way that the head of a hay stack is finished. I have 120 

 tons lying in this way : they are fine and dry, and appear to be keep- 

 ing well enough. I have also about 90 tons pitted, and well ventila- 

 ted with tiles, covered close up with about four inches of earth upon 

 them. I am just turning them over, and I find them in a bad state. 

 They should have been no worse than the others, as they were in the 

 same state when taken up. The cause of their being in a worse state, 

 I have no doubt originates from the covering of earth being put upon 

 them." 



A friend of mine showed me a letter from an Irish gentleman who 

 has adopted a very ingenious plan, he elevated his potatoes from the 

 ground by about six inches of large stones, covered with rushes, and 

 turf cut thin and dried. Chimnies of stones go up through the pota- 

 toes at intervals of four feet. In this way he secures a most thorough 

 ventilation, and has entirely checked the disease. 



The potatoes stored in pits are of course to be often inspected, and 

 picked over as when instances of disease appear. 



This appears to be the best plan yet devised for storing them on a 

 large scale. On a smaller scale, kiln drying has been generally found 



