THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 
' Potato—continued. 
are also burnt substances, such as wood and peat ashes, 
wood and peat charcoal, burnt clay, &c. Common salt is 
sometimes used beneficially as manure where the soil is 
unusually light and dry. Lime used occasionally for 
Potatoes has a marked effect, particularly on land already 
rich in decayed vegetable substances, the constituent 
parts of which require to be set free. Lime is also of 
use in killing slugs of various descriptions, which live 
in the earth, and frequently eat holes in, and partially 
destroy, the tubers. Guano, gypsum, bone-dust, nitrate of 
soda, and various other manures, have also been employed 
for the Potato, with more or less satisfactory results. 
Digging and Storing the Crop. Before the destructive 
Potato disease made its appearance, the main crops 
could be allowed to ripen naturally, and their produce 
lifted for storing, in any suitable weather, and at any 
convenient opportunity, before the appearance of frost. 
Of late years, however, it has often been necessary to 
lift the successive crops, from the earliest onwards, so 
soon as the foliage indicates that the ripening process 
is approaching completion. After the appearance of 
disease in anything like an extensive form, the quicker 
lifting is commenced, the better, provided the produce 
is sufficiently matured to insure its keeping afterwards. 
Exposure to light has a very injurious influence on 
Potatoes intended for food. It causes them to assume at 
first a yellowish tinge, and then a green colour, and 
materially impairs their flavour. The crop should, there- 
fore, never be allowed to lie in the open air after being 
dug, except, perhaps, for an hour or two to dry; even 
this is unnecessary if the ground is in proper working 
_ order, and the weather fine ; and from wherever the tubers 
are stored for the winter, or until required for use, light 
must be rigidly excluded. The most common plan of 
storing a stock of Potatoes is that of keeping them in 
pits; these, preferably, should never be made very large. 
_ A dry situation, or, at least, one where there is no 
: ity of water collecting, shonld be selected, and the 
_ soil dug out about Yin. deep, and 3ft. wide at the base. 
convenient, and covered with Qin. of soil, dug out from 
either side. The ridge, after being beaten flat with a 
spade, will be complete; it is then a good plan to thatch 
it with straw or dry fern, with a view to excluding frost 
and wet. It is advisable to make Potato pits with their 
ends pointing north and south. Thus arranged, a part of 
the contents may be taken ont from the southern end, 
ma frosty day, without injury, when the sun shines, 
_ and the remainder made secure. ' 
= Culture in Pots, Frames, fc. An early supply of new 
Potatoes is always considered an essential in the kitchen 
garden, and various methods are adopted to secure it— 
first, from under glass; and next, from the most favoured 
positions outside which the garden affords. Pots 8in. in 
diameter are sufficiently large for one set each; they 
may be filled half full of soil at first, and top-dressed 
when the plants have grown. Potatoes grown under 
glass must not be subjected to much heat, nor must they 
be kept in a confined atmosphere. A light position in a 
_ frame, or on a shelf in a house where there is a little 
= warmth, and plenty of air is admitted during favourable 
weather, is that best suited. Ordinary hotbeds in deep 
3 are well adapted for early Potato culture; to utilise 
the space, the sets may be planted in rows 12in. or 
a and additional soil provided when earthing-ur 
site. Only dwarf, compact varieties should 
ant 
The Potatoes may then be piled up in a ridge as high as 
| some others (Peziza ciboroides, P. sclerotiorum, &c.) 
d so soon as the weather allows, | 
the day, and put on again at |- 
Potato—continued. ` 
sheltered spots outside, choosing the same dwarf varieties 
for the first, and protecting them with fern, dry litter, 
or other substance, should unfavourable weather occur. 
Funai. By far the most destructive of the Fungi 
parasitic on Potatoes is that which causes “ Potato Rot,” 
and which is described under the heading Phyto- 
phthora infestans (which see). It is unnecessary to 
repeat what has already been said, and therefore the 
reader is referred to the above-named article for an 
account of this Fungus. The tubers suffer greatly from 
its action on them, though the action is less speedy than 
it is on the green parts of the plants. But even where 
the Fungus has not itself severely affected a tuber, the 
latter is rendered a suitable food for various species of 
Fungi which grow on it, and cause its decay by either Dry 
Rot or Wet Rot. The Fungi that grow on Potatoes under 
these conditions have heen carefully studied by the German 
botanists, Reinke and Berthold; and they, in 1879, pub- 
lished an account of their researches (“ Zersetzung der 
Kartoffel durch Pilze”). Of the many Fungi that they 
found on rotting Potatoes, they attribute the chief share 
to a few—viz.: in Dry Rot, to Fusisporiwm (Hypomyces) 
Solani, Nectria Solani, Verticillium cinnabarinum, Che- 
tomiwm crispatum, and C. bostrychodes; and, in Wet Rot, 
to Bacteria (Bacterium navicula and Baccillus amylo- 
bacter), although the Fungi of the Dry Rot were also pre- 
Fic. 257, PezizA PostumMa—a, Small Specimen (natural size), with 
two Cups on slender stalks, which rise from an oval Sclerotium 
(sc); b, Cup, cut lengthwise; c, Section of Half of Cup, showing 
surface-layer of Asci; d, Two Asci, each with eight Spores, 
arising from small-celled Tissue of Cup (magnified about 250 
sent. They recommend exposure to air and heat, either 
of the sun or of artificial origin, to check the decay, by 
drying the substance, and to save as much of the starch 
as possible for conversion into dextrine, in which form it 
is now largely used. But other Fungi besides Phyto- 
phthora infestans attack growing Potatoes. One * 
more dangerous of these is described in W. G. Smith’s 
Diseases of Field and Garden Crops” (pp. 15-29) under 
the name of Peziza postuma ; but this Fungus is so like 
that its specific rank is doubtful. Mr. Smith states. that 
