PRESERVATION OF VEGETABLES. 47 



PRESERVATION OF VEGETABLES, 



In our directions for the cultivation of vegetables, we 

 have given instructions for their preservation whenever any 

 special mode of doing so was deemed necessary ; we shall 

 therefore here only give general directions for so doing. 



All root crops, such as beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, 

 potatoes, horseradish, etc., are better preserved in out- 

 door pits than in cellars, as they keep more plump and 

 succulent, and have less tendency to become stringy than 

 when kept in a cellar. Besides this it is more healthful 

 thus to keep them than in a cellar, for unless care is taken 

 to remove any that may decay, they are liable to produce 

 disease among those living in the house. Only so many 

 ought to be thus kept as will supply the family for three 

 or four weeks. 



In a dry, sheltered situation, dig out a series of shallow 

 pits a foot deep, and of such length and width as may be 

 necessary for the bulk of each vegetable to be preserved. 

 Into each pit place the roots, they having been previously 

 topped, and pile them up in a rounding manner. On them 

 lay three or four inches of straw or leaves, and over this 

 place a layer of soil eighteen or twenty inches deep, beat- 

 ing it down firmly with the back of the spade, and sloping 

 it off nicely. Cover the southerly end of each pit with a 

 thick layer of leaves, straw or litter, to keep the soil from 

 freezing, and to afford ready access to them during the 

 hard winter weather. If there is any danger of water 

 lodging in the pits, drains must be dug in such a manner 

 as to readily carry it off. If old boards or fence rails can 

 be had, a pent house roof, like a chicken coop, can be made 

 over each pit, and the earth laid on it, and the straw or 

 litter be omitted. The best time for doing this is tawards 

 the end of November or tho first of December. 



