00 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



or a third, which is small, and unfit for the table, for 

 market, or for seed, but which is as good as the 

 large ize !or farm-stock, and which can be econom- 

 ically used for this purpose, in fattening hogs and 

 beef cattle, in autumn and winter. If they are sep- 

 arated at the harvest, they are always in readiness ; 

 if not, the sorting is tedious, or is neglected, and the 

 small potatoes are the last that remain, cither for 

 the table or for seed. With us the work is a trifling 

 affair. We have a wire sieve or riddle, the meshes 

 of which are of a size to admit those of a given size, 

 appropriated to swine or cattle, to pass through. As 

 the crop is brought home, a peck is thrown into the 

 riddle, and, by shaking it half a minute, the sorting is 

 completed. 



Wintering the crop. The best mode of preserving 

 potatoes in perfection through the winter is to bury 

 them in shallow pits, in a dry and porous soil (a side 

 hill is the best), where they will be free from water, 

 and to cover them first with straw, and then with 

 earth, and, if convenient, coarse manure over the 

 earth, so that they shall be secure from frost. 

 Whether put in pit or cellar, they should be dry, 

 that is, free from external moisture. Potatoes put 

 into the cellar should be kept as cool as possible 

 without freezing, and air should be excluded by a 

 light covering of mould or sand. A dry, warm at- 

 mosphere will speedily impair their good properties. 



In using potatoes, they are improved by boiling, es- 

 pecially for pigs. The potato belongs to a family 

 of poisonous plants, the solanum; the boiling 01 

 steaming of which is believed to expel the deleteri- 

 ous, and to improve its nutritious properties. To 

 neat cattle and horses they may be fed raw with 

 manifest advantage. In cooking them for the table, 

 it is preferable to do it by steam. The mode of do- 

 ing it is simple. Take a piece of sheet iron, of the 

 size of the bilge of your pot or kettle ; perforate it 

 whh half inch holes ; then clip off two parallel sides 



