304 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



toes are more used than formerly, they are not 

 such a general article of food as in Ireland. 

 The custom there is to store them in pits covered 

 with a high mound of clay, which by excluding 

 the air delays the progress of vegetation in the 

 root, until the time of replanting returns. 



" It is quite astonishing," my aunt remarked 

 last night, "how the cultivation of potatoes has 

 spread since they were first discovered in South 

 America, and imported by the Spaniards, who 

 called them papas. Sir Walter Raleigh found 

 them afterwards in Virginia ; he introduced them 

 into this country in 1596, and there is now scarcely 

 a civilized spot on the earth to which we have 

 not distributed them. Even to Persia, this va- 

 luable root has been conveyed by the benevolent 

 exertions of our envoy, Sir John Malcolm ; and 

 at Abusheher the grateful inhabitants call it 

 Malcolm's plum." 



I have been very busy this morning clearing 

 away all dead stalks and leaves in my garden, 

 and completing the borders, which I have edged 

 with thrift; and all my seed-beds have been 

 lightly covered to preserve them from the ex- 

 pected frost. 



The gardener is going to try two new methods 

 of raising pine-apples ; for my uncle always likes 

 to ascertain truth by experiment. A great pit is 

 to be filled with withered leaves, which in decay- 

 ing undergo a fermentation that produces suffi- 



