46 VEGETABLE GAEDENING. 



After being lifted and allowed to become dry in the 

 open air, they should be placed direct into shallow 

 boxes, and taken indoors. The boxes may be stood 

 in any outhouse, loft, or unused room where the 

 potatoes will receive as much light and air as pos- 

 sible while they are out of the soil, so long as they 

 are kept safe from frost in winter. They will, how- 

 ever, come safely through a dangerously low tempera- 

 ture if the ventilators are closed and the atmosphere 

 is quite still at the time, and, in very severe frost, 

 they are covered with sacks or other protective 

 material. The ends of the seed boxes should be 

 made a few inches higher than the sides ; they can 

 then be piled one above another to any height, having 

 thus secured that light and a free circulation of air 

 can readily enter between them. 



Sprouting Potatoes. There can be no question 

 as to the advantage of having well-sprouted potatoes 

 for planting, provided the sprouting has proceeded 

 along right lines. When the tubers have been ex- 

 posed to the influence of light and air, they generally 

 vegetate earlier and more vigorously, which is de- 

 sirable, but care must be taken not to allow the 

 sprouts to be drawn up into long white succulent, 

 useless growths. When lifted in the autumn the 

 potatoes may either be placed a single layer in each 

 box, which is best, or, if storage accommodation is 

 small, two or three layers in each box, until the be- 

 ginning of the year ; but at that time, whenever a 

 variety shows signs of active growth, the tubers must 

 be arranged in single layers and placed with crown 

 ends up, so that the strong buds are fully exposed. 

 They should then be kept in full light, so that there 



