174 Home Vegetable Gardening 



Select a spot where water will not stand. Put the 

 vegetables in a triangular-shaped pile, the base three 

 or four feet wide, and as long as required. Sepa- 

 rate the different vegetables in this pile by stakes 

 about two feet higher than the top of the pile, and 

 label them. Then cover with a layer of clean straw 

 or bog hay, and over this four inches of soil, dug 

 up three feet back from the edges of the pile. This 

 work must be done late in the fall, as nearly as one 

 can judge just before lasting freezing begins, and 

 preferably on a cold morning when the ground is 

 just beginning to freeze; the object being to freeze 

 the partly earth covering at once, so that it will not 

 be washed or blown off. The vegetables must be 

 perfectly dry when stored ; dig them a week or so 

 previous and keep them in an airy shed. As soon 

 as this first layer of earth is partly frozen, but before 

 it freezes through, put on another thick layer of 

 straw or hay and cover with twelve inches of earth, 

 keeping the pile as steep as possible ; a slightly clayey 

 soil, that may be beaten down firmly into shape with 

 a spade, being best. The pile should be made where 

 it will be sheltered from the sun as much as possible, 

 such as on the north side of a building. The disad- 

 vantage of the plan is, of course, that the vegetables 

 cannot be got at until the pile is opened up, in early 

 spring, or late if desired. Its two advantages are 

 that the vegetables stored will be kept in better con- 



