320 Transactions of the American Institute. 



ground until the weather turns cool. They should, however, be dug 

 before the ground freezes. The ends of such potatoes as are exposed 

 to frost should be protected, until dug, by throwing on dirt. I have 

 had the best success with kiln-dried sand. This can be very easily 

 done by building a platform of dry wood, with an open space, under 

 the bottom, of a foot or so. Throw the sand on the top, and fire the 

 wood. As the wood burns the sand will run down into the open 

 space. After the sand has cooled, pour among the potatoes. This 

 plan does equally well in hills and cellars, care being taken not to 

 place too many in a bulk, say not more than thirty bushels. The 

 ashes from the wood will do no harm, especially if pine wood be 

 used. I have used sand for four crops of potatoes. Two of the 

 crops were dug early, and treated with sand that had been spread on 

 a floor until it was supposed to be dry. The potatoes soon heated, 

 and many of them rotted, one of the crops being nearly a complete 

 loss. Whether this was attributable to the potatoes being dug too 

 early, the warm weather, or to the sand not being thoroughly dry, I 

 am not now able to tell. In both cases the sand was applied to the 

 potatoes in a dry state, soon after they were dug. The other two 

 crops remained in the ground about as long as it was safe for them, 

 there being, in one case, a considerable freeze soon after the potatoes 

 were dug. The potatoes were all treated with kiln-dried sand, and 

 kept as well as could be desired. I selected two hills, and applied the 

 sand to one soon after the potatoes had been bulked. The other hill 

 was aired some two or three weeks by having three or four air-holes- 

 at the bottom of the hill, and one at top, when the sand was applied. 

 In the spring it could not be told which plan was best, there not 

 being, that I now recollect of, a single rotten potato in either hill. 

 For edible purposes, however, it would, probably, be best to partially 

 cure the potatoes before the sand is applied 1 , as the potatoes- appear to 

 undergo but little change after the sand is applied. I have seen them, 

 where they had been accidentally broken in ■putting away, look about 

 as fresh when opened the following spring as if it had just been done. 

 Therefore, where they are put up in a green state they will be in 

 about the same condition when opened the following spring, not hav- 

 ing sweetened any by time. I also believe that the potatoes are less 

 liable to heat if they be first partially cured before the sand is applied. 



Virginia Lands. 

 Mr. S. L. Baldwin, Guineys, Carolina county — The development 

 of Virginia has been much delayed by the droughts of the last two 



