102 The Potatoe Plague. 
seasons potatoes are always found to be watery and without 
flavor, although cooked with ihe greatest care. In this case 
the mode of effecting an amelioration is easy; it consists in 
placing them near a stove or oven, for about a week pre- 
viously to their being used; at the end of that time they will 
be found mealy and of good flavor.” Objects of vast impor- 
tance are sometimes attained by very simple means; and 
that to which the foregoing remarks apply, is by no means 
underserving consideration. At a meeting of farmers in 
Scotland, they gave clearly the results of their varied experi- 
ence, and one fact all the speakers seemed to agree in, which 
was, tat potatoes left in the ground, where they grew, al- 
ways produced a healthy crop. Many farmers confirm this. 
One farmer says he has followed this same plan forty years 
with uniform success; the potatoes were always fresh and 
well tasted, and as seed, they never failed. Here is the 
simplest of all plans for saving seed, for a little extra earth 
will secure them from frost. It is stated by some that extra 
earth in saving potatoes is unnecessary. If they are in a 
dry soil, and completely covered by it, they will not be in- 
jured by the most severe frost——that is, supposing they are 
to remain in the soil until they are completely thawed again. 
Hundreds of potatoes are left in the ground all the winter, 
many of them not more than an inch deep, and yet when 
they are turned up in the spring, they are as sound as if they 
had been kept in a cellar. 
It has been thought that the sprouting of potatoes in cel- 
lars must have some effect on the healthy developement of 
the future plant, and it would seem that there is some reason 
for this idea, “as in the town of Ballina (Ireland) where the 
vot has never appeared, I have been told that all farmers, 
from the richest to the poorest, take especial care to select 
those potatoes which have never sprouted in cellars, and 
to plant them as quick as possible. It is said, however, that 
