the Cultivation of Potatoes. 227 



Previously to their being stored, they should be spread abroad for two or three 

 days, that they may be perfectly dry ; lest when they are laid by, whether in a 

 pit or elsewhere, they should ferment and be spoiled. 



Two things are to be attended to, in storing potatoes, namely, that they are kept 

 dry, and that they are out of the reach of frost. The most common way, where 

 they are raised in large quantities, is to put them into what are called pies. These 

 are trenches from five to six feet wide (the narrower the better) and usually about 

 one deep. Their length of course must be determined by the quantity to be stored. 

 These trenches are to be made where no wet can drain into them. The sides being 

 lined with straw, the potatoes are laid in, and ridged up about two feet and a lialf 

 or three feet high, like the roof of a house. The whole is then covered with dry 

 straw at least a foot thick, and on that is laid the earth which came out of the 

 trench, and as much more as may be necessary completely to exclude the frost. 



The earth is carefully to be beaten down and laid with such a declivity as that 

 the rain may not soak in. 



VIII. On the Application of Potatoes as Food for Animals. 



Much has been said and written, on the best and cheapest modes by which 

 potatoes may be prepared as food for animals. Though I diflFer from most writers 

 on this subject in supposing that simple boiling, all circumstances considered, is 

 perhaps as cheap a way as any by which they can undergo a culinary process; yet 

 as to boil them properly requires an attention which is not to be expected from 

 common farming servants, I should prefer either steaming, roasting upon kilns, or 

 baking. By any of these processes the watery particles are dissipated, without the 

 chance or possibility of being reabsorbed, as will inevitably be the case in boiling, 

 unless they are taken out of the water before the ebullition subsides. 



It were presumption to say that where potatoes are cultivated -upon a great 

 scale, and where fuel is exceedingly cheap, and where the expence of buildings, 

 apparatus, &c. is not an object (but where is it hot an object?) potatoes may not 

 be cooked to advantage. I am, however, decidely of opinion that it will never 

 answer the purpose of farmers in general to adopt the practice, I mean beyond 

 what can be done by the farmer's wife (if she will condescend to such employ- 

 ment) or dairy maid, in the common routine of business, without interfering with 

 their regular work ; and this could only extend to a few hogs in the stye, 



Gg2 



