PRESERVATION OF POTATOES. 17 



of cultivating, managing, and using this crop, that caused those 

 violent prejudices against the plant, which prevailed for a long 

 time among the bulk of mankind, after the potato was first intro- 

 duced and recommended as an article worthy of the attention of 

 the rural economist. Even in this cnlighthened age and nation, 

 we have known firmers nearly spoil their crop of potatoes by mis- 

 management in digging and securing them. Some of those wise 

 cultivators who know too much to be taught, either by the lessons 

 of experience or the dictates of reason, let them lay after they are 

 dug, for several days, perhaps weeks, in the field, as if on purpose 

 to spoil them. 



But, of late years, more correct systems relative to this and other 

 branches of husbandry are introduced and becoming prevalent. 

 Men who unite science, good sense, and experience, afford such 

 lights that none but those whose m.ental optics are, as it were, 

 hermetically sealed by obstinacy and prejudice, persevere in the 

 use of bad means, to attain good ends. 



The following paper from the Transactions of the Society of 

 Arts in London, may be of use to those who wish to preserve po- 

 tatoes in the best possible condition, either for sea stores, foreign 

 consumption, or domestic use. 



" The usual mode at present practised for endeavoring to pre- 

 serve potatoes, is to leave them, after digging, exposed to the sun 

 and air until they are dry. This exposure generally causes them 

 to have a bitter taste ; and it may be remarked, that potatoes are 

 never so sweet to the palate, as when cooked immediately after 

 digging. I find, that when potatoes are left in large heaps or pits 

 in the ground, that a fermentation takes place which destroys the 

 sweet flavor of the potatoes. In order to prevent that fermenta- 

 tion, and to preserve them from losing the original fine and plea- 

 sant flavor, my plan is, (and which experience proves to me to 

 have the desired effect,) to have them packed in casks as they are 

 digging from the ground, and to have the casks, when the potatoes 

 are piled in them, filled up with sand or earth, taking care that it 

 is done as speedily as possible, and that all vacant places in the 

 cask are filled up by the earth or sand ; the cask thus packed, 

 holds as many potatoes as it would were no earth or sand used in 

 the packing ; and as the vacant spaces in the cask of potatoes are 

 filled, the air is totally excluded and cannot act on the potatoes, 

 and consequently no fermentation can take place. 



" I sailed from New- York to St. Bartholomews, and brought with 

 me two hundred barrels of potatoes, packed in the above manner. 

 On my ari'ival at the island, I found, as I expected, that the pota- 

 toes had preserved all their original sweetness of flavor; intact, 

 as good as when first dug, having undergone no fermentation, nor 

 in the slightest degree affected by the bilge or close air of the 

 ship. Some barrels of the potatoes I sold there, and at the neigh- 

 boring islands, for four dollars per bushf I, and at the same time po- 

 tatoes carried out in bulk, without packing, and others that werf 

 brought there packed in casks which had iiot been tilled un with 

 3 V«L. 1. 



