206 STORING OF POTATOES. 



With regard to the storing of potatoes out of 

 doors and their safety in winter, the progress of 

 frost ought to be observed. As soon as it has got 

 to the depth of seven inches in the ground the po- 

 tato pits are in danger, and may certainly be saved 

 by covering them with a thick coat of litter or a 

 plentiful supply of whins. The other difficulties 

 are incessant growing in spring, or shrivelling when 

 the growth is checked by dry air. Some recipes 

 that have been given to the public are quite falla- 

 cious. A dip in boiling water settles the ques- 

 tion as to growth, but the potato soon decays; salt 

 prevents all vegetation, but if to such an extent it 

 be mingled with soil for covering potatoes it des- 

 troys them. The extraction of the buds, though 

 it impedes the growth only for a time, is the most 

 common and for general use the best remedy, to- 

 gether with clean sweeping, thin spreading, and 

 occasional turning in an open well aired place. 

 This, however, cannot prevent shrivelling; but the 

 following though somewhat troublesome operation 

 seems to answer all ends, and may be tried with a 

 few, for very long keeping, after the more common 

 methods have failed. Make a pit two feet deep, in 

 a shady place, as on the north side of a wall ; 

 drench the pit with water; then tumble in the po- 

 tatoes, previously cleared of their shoots, and drench 



tato failure; and surely the recent calamities of famine and pesti- 

 lence, caused by the almost total destruction of that root on which 

 the poor so miserably depended for their subsistence, cannot fail to 

 draw attention to those interests with which the above specula- 

 tions were formerly to the writer, and now to the public, so dread- 

 fully invested. 



