i'8t THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



week in May, or the first in June, we plant them in beds previously 

 trenched and enriched with good strong decomposed manure. We 

 give them abundance of water when they are planted, and after- 

 wards treat them occasionally to a copious soaking of liquid manure. 

 For the outsides of the beds we use Carina coccinea, whicb grows 

 two feet ; the next range is 0. patens, from three to four feet ; and 

 in the centre C. gigcmtea, four to six feet. 



THE PRESERVATION OF POTATOES. 



iHE methods ordinarily employed for the preservation of 

 potatoes, though good in themselves, are often inef- 

 ficiently carried out, owing to the absence of an intelli- 

 gent appreciation of their intended mode of action, and 

 so it happens that their success or non-success is fre- 

 quently a mere matter of chance, when a moment's thought would 

 have insured a favourable result. In storing potatoes, either for 

 seed or for culinary purposes, the main object in view is to prevent 

 their germination, so that it may not be necessary to pick out the 

 budding eyes, a process which invariably induces a rapid deteriora- 

 tion in quality and strength. The ordinary plan of storing tbem in 

 cellars is at once good and bad : good, because the atmospbere of 

 such places is usually somewhat damp, so that the tubers do not 

 so soon lose by evaporation the water that is naturally present in 

 them ; bad, because the cellars are, for the most part, kept con- 

 stantly closed, so that occasionally the temperature rises considerably 

 and induces tbe very evil we wish to avoid, namely, tbe sprouting 

 out of the buds. To prevent this, the store-place should be whole- 

 some, dry, and freely ventilated. In extremely cold weather tbe 

 temperature must be raised by artificial means, but an excess of 

 warmth is to be carefully guarded against ; it is sufficient to keep 

 the temperature just above freezing-point, the arrival of which may 

 be proved, in the absence of a thermometer, by the appearance of 

 ice on a shallow pan of water purposely kept in the store-place. 

 These measures suffice in the case of potatoes intended for planting 

 out; but wbere they are required for domestic consumption, the 

 further precaution must be taken of shielding them from the action 

 of light. If this be not done, the tubers are apt to turn green, a 

 change which is nothing to their detriment for seeding purposes, but 

 which is attended by chemical alterations that give them a bitter 

 taste, and quite spoils them for domestic use. By attention to 

 these points, old potatoes may be preserved in good palatable con- 

 dition up to the middle of June, or sometimes to the middle of 

 July. 



