.102 The Potatoe Plague. 



seasons potatoes are always found to be watery and without 

 flavor, although cooked with the greatest care. In this case 

 the mode of effecting an amelioration is easy ; it consists in 

 (placing them near a stove or oven, for about a week pre- 

 viously to their being used ; at the end of that time they will 

 be found mealy and of good flavor." Objects of vast impor- 

 tance are sometimes attained by very simple means ; and 

 tiiat to which the foregoing remarks apply, is by no means 

 .underserving consideration. At a meeting of farmers in 

 Scotland, they gave clearly the results of their varied experi- 

 ence, and one fact all the speakers seemed to agree in, which 

 was, that potatoes left in the ground, where they grew, al- 

 ways produced a healthy crop. Many farmers confirm this. 

 One farmer says he has followed this same plan forty years 

 with uniform success ; the potatoes Avere always fresh and 

 well tasted, and as seed, they never failed. Here is the 

 simplest of all plans for saving seed, for a little extra earth 

 will secure them from frost. It is stated by some that extra 

 earth in saving potatoes is unnecessary. If they are in a 

 dry soil, and completely covered by it, they will not be in- 

 jured by the most severe frost that is, supposing they are 

 to remain in the soil until they are completely thawed again. 

 Hundreds of potatoes are left in the ground all the winter, 

 many of them not more than an inch deep, and yet when 

 they are turned up in the spring, they are as sound as if they 

 had been kept in a cellar. 



It has been thought that the sprouting of potatoes in cel- 

 lars must have some effect on the healthy developement of 

 the future plant, and it would seem that there is some reason 

 for this idea, " as in the town of Ballina (Ireland) where the 

 rot has never appeared, I have been told that all farmers, 

 from the richest to the poorest, take especial care to select 

 those potatoes which have never sprouted in cellars, and 

 to plant them as quick as possible. It is said, however, that 



