THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
small your homestead. It is not once in five times 
that I can buy potatoes without they bring the 
flavor that comes from having been left too long in 
the sun, or the flavor of rancid soil. Potatoes even 
slightly sun-burned are bitter and poisonous. You 
will find it one of your country luxuries to be able 
to dig a pailful every morning, fresh from the soil; 
nor will you be long in discovering that, as with 
peas and beans, so with potatoes there is a vast 
dissimilarity in the value of different varieties. You 
will soon become a vegetable connoisseur. You 
will taste and compare potatoes as you do pears 
and plums, and after that you will learn also that 
some varieties are much more digestible than others. 
From this you will learn how to cook them cor- 
rectly — always in their jackets. Potatoes, like 
apples, soon absorb bad odors, and you will learn 
that your potato cellar must be clean and sweet as 
your dining-room. ‘There are many such things to 
be found out about a country home. I will not 
undertake a list of potatoes for you to experiment 
with, because new ones are sent out each year 
and we are liable to have at any time an im- 
provement. I confess to a liking for a strong- 
flavored potato, and I do not choose them for 
[240] 
