SECT. XV. OF ESCULENTS. 2S7 



in time. Let them be brought in clean and dry. If 

 not kept in a warm cellar , they may be laid in a room % 

 having fome ftraw at bottom, and when in profpeft 

 of froft entering the houfe, they fhould be covered 

 with ftraw, a foot thick. 



Pying (as" it is called in fome places) is a good 

 method of preserving potatoes in winter. They are 

 piled on the furface of the ground, in a ridged form, 

 of a width and length at pleafure, according to the 

 quantity, but commonly about fix feet wide. This is 

 done by digging a fpit of earth, and laying it round 

 the edge, a foot wide (if turf the better) filling the 

 fpace up with ftraw, and then laying on a courfe of 

 potatoes, dig earth from the outfide, and lay upon the 

 firft earth. Put ftraw a few inches along the infide 

 edge, then put in more potatoes, and fo on, keeping 

 a good coat of ftraw all the way up between the pota- 

 toes and the mould, which fhould be about fix inches 

 thick all over ; beat it clofe together, and the form it 

 lies in, with the trench all round, will preferve the 

 potatoes dry ; and the fharpeft froft will hardly afFett 

 them ; in a fevere time of which, the whole may be 

 covered with ftraw. In the jpring, look over the 

 ftock, and break off the fhoots of thofe defigned for 

 the table, and repeat this bufmefs to preferve the 

 potatoes longer good. 



Pumpioks being tender, are raifed on a moderate 

 hot -bed, in April, or May, according to the time defired 

 to have fruit at. After the feed has been up a few 

 days, prick the plants out at four or five inches, or 

 rather put them in fmal! pots, one in each. When a 

 month old, they may be planted out about four yards 

 afunder, one of the large forts, or two of the fmall 

 ones, on a hole of two or three barrows full of hot 

 dung, and about ten inches thick of mould. Cover 

 with hand-glajff'es, or garden-pots, or hoops and mats, 

 on nights, till Mid-June. On fuch a hole of hot dung 

 they may be foivn in May, under a hand-glafs, and 

 5 there 



