Cultivation of the Potato. 
353 
boiled, and the other will cut like a piece of soap ; that one which 
falls to pieces is to all intents and purposes more wholesome than 
the other both for man and beast, because its nutritious matter is 
more readilv imparted. 
An experiment that I made some time ago proved to me the 
correctness of this opinion. A large hog, fed on 3 bushels of Xo- 
blow potatoes mixed with 1 bushel of barley-meal, improved in 
weight in fourteen days 29 lbs. ; the next fourteen days it was fed 
on the same quantity of Mangold-wurzel potatoes with 1 bushel of 
barley-meal, and only improved 21 lbs. ; on being allowed Xoblow 
potatoes in the same proportion the next fourteen days, it improved 
in weight 34 lbs. ; it was weighed each time before breakfast on 
the fourteenth dav ; other experiments made proved the decided 
superiority of the mealy potato. The Mangold-wurzel potato is 
an immense cropper on very rich soil, but when brought on poor 
brashy soil the Noblow yields a far greater weight. 
So much for sorts and quantities. We come now to preserving 
them for use in the winter and earlv summer months. 
There is a very great mistake in the common way of preserving 
potatoes for use. W e very often see potatoes dug in wet weather, 
thrown into a waggon or cart, and thence into a heap, as if 
they were so many stones. This is a great mistake. Potatoes 
ought to be handled as tenderly as eggs, if possible ; for when 
thrown heavily about just when fresh taken up, it bruises them so 
that thev are not fit to be eaten or seen. Then we see people 
• laying a great quantity of straw next the potatoes, and afterwards 
covering them up with a large quantity of mould, which they beat as 
if they were puddling a pool : this, too, is wrong. It is well known 
that potatoes heat if laid in a heap as soon as thev are taken 
up : the steam is kept in, the straw becomes wet, and very likely 
mildew or some other species of fungus follows, and the destruc- 
tion of many of the tubers is inevitable. I have seen hundreds of 
such cases in which the potatoes have been more or less afifected, 
some to the extent of nine-tenths of the whole heap quite spoiled. 
I beg, then, to suggest a simple method which we have practised 
many years, and by following which all these bad consequences 
may be averted. 
Never raise your potatoes in v,et weather, but alwavs choose a 
dry time for the purpose ; let them be perfectly ripe if intended 
for eating ; handle them as gently as possible ; choose a dry situa- 
tion for the heap ; lay ihem long and narrow, not allowing the 
bottom of the heap to be more than 4 feet wide ; lay the tubers 
in ridge-ways as neat as possible ; then cover with fine mould, but 
do not on 'any account put straw next the tubers, nor beat the 
mould hard, but let it lie as light and hollow as possible. By 
this means the rank steam is allowed to pass ofi., and the air to 
