ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 303 



some of the newer varieties did not rot at all. The old varieties are 

 deteriorating' and we must go back to the seed and get new varieties. 



Mr. President. — The Peach Blow is now one of the oldest varieties 

 we have. It is also one of the most exempt from rot. We have one 

 thousand bushels and there is not an unsound potato in the whole 

 lot. 



Mr. Teuhner. — The Peach Blow is such a very late ])otato that it 

 grows in the fall when the weather is cool and there is plenty of moist- 

 ure. I think decay is prevented by early digging. One year I had 

 one hundred and fifty bushels of White Star. I dug a few very early 

 for the fair and after exhibiting them I stored them in a dry shed. The 

 others staid in the ground very late. The season was hot and wet. 

 By the middle of October I found one-third of those in the ground 

 "were rotten and the sound ones were rough and of poor quality. The 

 early dug ones were mealy and nice as they could be. Since that time 

 I have practiced digging them as soon as the vines commenced dying, 

 not letting them get hot in the sun, but digging early in the morning 

 and late in the evening. 



Mr. LaiighUn. — I had a very fine patch, planted late, well tended. 

 I let them stay in the ground very late. After the first ^ight frost I 

 put them in the cellar and thouglit I was safe, tn the last week I find 

 one-fourth gone with rot, and going very fast. I will take them from 

 the cellar and put them in pits mixed with dirt. I have the Early Eose, 

 White Whipple and Beauty of Hebron. 



Mr. Francis. — I remember a patch of potatoes that were fine. The 

 river overflowed them for three days. They were dug shortly after- 

 wards and there was not a sound potato in that part of the patch. I 

 keep potatoes dry, harvest them soon after maturity, i)ut them in gran- 

 eries in the barn, cool, dark and dry. I have done this way for years. 

 I have very little rot. The drier and cooler the place the better. 

 They sprout in the cellar. 



Mr. Follett. — I think it is a question of vitality, of breeding. W^e 

 have the same thing with all manner of life. The same things that en- 

 genders scrofula in the human family will engender disease in the veg- 

 etable family. 



Mr. Murray — I have several times procured seed potatoes from 

 the north. I find it increases my crop from thirty to fifty per cent. We 

 are in too warm a latitude to maintain the full vigor of the Irish potato. 



Mr. Laughlin — I would like to have a cure for the potatoes now iu 

 the cellar. 



Mr. Follett — You can't cure them. 



