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day. If a pit or clarnp becomes submerged for that 

 time the whole of the tubers decay. We have known 

 instances where this has occurred. All care has been 

 taken to place them under favourable conditions as 

 soon as possible, but it has been useless. An instance 

 recently came under our notice where a pit was 

 submerged. As soon as possible they were taken 

 into a large barn to dry, but within a fortnight, every 

 one was rotten. In a few days they became soft, like 

 a sleepy pear, and this was shortly followed by a putrid 

 rot, so that they were carted away to the land as 

 manure. In the same flood another pit was sub- 

 merged. The owner, immediately he could get them 

 out of the pit, sent them to London, but they rotted 

 in the trucks, and were destroyed. Perhaps a more 

 striking illustration of the injurious effect of water was 

 shown in the case of a grower who dug a crop in a 

 wet autumn which came out badly. The tubers were 

 smothered with earth, which adhered to them ; so the 

 grower was somewhat alarmed for fear of their heating 

 in the pit. To avoid this, he washed about half the 

 crop, but had not time to treat the whole of them in 

 this manner. They were stored under exactly similar 

 circumstances, and when he opened the pit he found 

 that the whole of those he had washed were putrid, 

 while those he \left smothered with earth were as 

 sound, as he could desire. We have seen the same 

 result on newly-planted crops where a flood has stood 

 ,on the land for a day. 



