280 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXII. 



well-grown tubers, — to early and deep j)lanting,- — late gathering — ,and 

 attentive storing. 



We should have here done with the subject, were it not of such import- 

 ance that every fact which bears in the remotest degree upon it should be 

 stated ; and the following instance, as related in the Irish Farmer's 

 Magazine for January, 1835, shows one among the many ways in which 

 the root may be affected : — 



" A gentleman who holds a farm of 150 acres, planted in the usual 

 manner 34 acres with potatoes in the year 1832, The result was, a com- 

 plete failure and total loss of the croj). This induced him to try several 

 experiments upon the root, all of which failed, except the following: — He 

 took six potatoes, and divided them into 20 cuts ; he then got a large basin 

 of water, into which he put a cupful of salt and a piece of blue-stone about 

 the size of a walnut. Into this basin he put 10 of the cuts, and let them 

 remain there one night, leaving the others untouched. On the 10 cuts, 

 which were not immersed in the basin, he could distinctly perceive, by a 

 a very strong microscope, many small wbite particles like eggs; but those 

 cuts which were immersed presented no such appearance. This discovery 

 urged him to follow up the examination attentively, and every day, for a 

 short period, he continued to watch the appearance of the aforesaid matter. 

 The result was, that those white globular particles were animalcula ; for, 

 in a few days, they became quite visible to the naked eye in the form of 

 little worms, or maggots. The cuts that had been steeped never showed 

 the least appearance of any such tiling, and they retained their solidity 

 and firmness when the other ten were completely decayed and rotten. Still, 

 unwilling to believe without further proof, he tried the experiment five or 

 six times, and planted them, distinctly marking a division between those 

 cuts which were steeped and those which were not; the consequence of 

 which was, the almost total failure of the one kind and the complete suc- 

 cess of the other." 



This, indeed, accorils with other instances, which go far to prove that 

 the failure of cro})s has been occasioned by the use of cuts from tubers 

 which have generated maggots and have turned rotten, thus manifesting 

 some constitutional malady ; and quicklime powdered over the cuts has 

 been recommended as a preventive. This, however, has been thought by 

 some as a dangerous experiment, which, if not cautiously used, might 

 destroy the vegetative principle ; but this, we conceive, might be avoided, 

 and the object equally well attained by dipping the sets into a paste made 

 of gypsum and water, which, though perfectly innocent, will form a coat- 

 ing impenetrable to the external air, and therefore preventive of the gene- 

 ration of insects. From whatever cause the failure of .sets may arise, it is, 

 however, evident that whole tubers, if in a sound state, or if left in the 

 ground during the winter, never fail to spring ; wliich proves that the skin 

 can resist injuries which are fatal to the uncovered pulp ; and that " wher- 

 ever maggots have been found, they have been a consequence and not a 

 cause of the partial or entire decay of the sets." 



STORING. 



The cheapest mode of taking up potatoes is bv means of the double 

 mould-board plough ; but the single plough is infinitely preferable, for, if 

 })Ut in at the full depth, it turns the jiotatoes fairly over without cutting 

 them, while the double plough, even in the hands of the best workman, 

 bruises them considerably. Many persons, however, prefer h;iving them dug 

 up with a pronged fork, or " grapes," both as more com])letely clearing 



