Keeping Potatoes in Winter and Summer. 405 



knight not be altogether uninteresting to the young gardener 

 to know that a regular and plentiful supply of ice is to be 

 obtained without the aid of salt : but 1 am perfectly aware 

 that it is not every house that has been built for the reception 

 of ice that will preserve it sufficiently well and long, however 

 judiciously managed. 



My method is as follows : — As soon as the ice is frozen 

 to a proper thickness, it is conveyed to the ice-house, where 

 a sufficient number of men are ready to proceed to break it 

 in small pieces ; then they throw it into the house, where three 

 or four men more are employed pounding it, till a sufficient 

 quantity of powder is obtained to prevent any part of it being 

 hollow. In this manner I proceed till the house and entrance, 

 or passage to the house, is completely filled. The ice which 

 the passage contains furnishes a supply for six or eight weeks ; 

 at the expiration of which time the house is opened, and a 

 quantity of straw taken into it, sufficient to fill the cavity that 

 will then be found between the ice and the wall, and also to lie 

 one bundle thick over the top of the ice. The passage is now 

 closely filled up with straw. 



For eleven successive years the ice-house here was not 

 without a large stock of ice ; at the expiration of which time 

 I had the then remaining ice removed, in order to examine 

 the wood-work at the bottom, and to lay in a fresh quantity 

 of wood faggots, which are placed over the bottom as closely 

 as possible. I am, Sir, &c. 



Luscombe, near Exeter^ Richard Saunders. 



Nov. 27. 1827. 



Art. IV. On keeping Potatoes through the Winter and Sum- 

 mer in Canada Cellars. By Mr. George Fulton, Gar- 

 dener to Lord Northwick, at Northwick Park. 



Sir, 

 Some of your correspondents have given an account of 

 growing early and late potatoes, but I am not aware of any 

 that have stated how to keep a crop of late potatoes through 

 the winter and summer months in a high degree of perfection ; 

 for it is often seen that the different methods of keeping, or 

 rather bad treatment of the tubers, such as pitting in great 

 quantities, exposure afterwards to the air in turning them 



d d 3 



