546 On the Nature and Causes of the Decay in Potatoes. 
principle of storing potatoes may be described — and that word is 
DRYNESS. Some may prefer one way to attain this object, some 
another : for my own ])art, I attach little importance to the 
method pursued, provided the access of moisture is prevented. 
Innumerable recipes have been given : some have proposed ven- 
tilating pits, others ventilating sheds ; the Commissioners have 
proposed dry packing- materials of a specific kind, and a very 
learned professor has been surprised that farmers have not strung 
their potatoes on packing-threads as they do their onions. After 
all, you will follow your own way, and there are innumerable 
ways in which you may attain the same object — only let these 
methods be founded on the following principles, which every one 
will admit to be correct by his own experience. 
Strict attention to cleanliness is the first rule in a dairy, and the 
careful dairywoman knows well that if she has spilt milk upon 
the table she must not only wipe it up, but she must wash the 
place on which it has fallen. The reason is, that when the milk 
is allowed to remain, it passes into a state of putrescence, putrid 
gases are generated, and these acting on the fresh milk cause it also 
to turn sour. If a piece of flesh be placed in a perfectly new 
vessel, it remains a long time without becoming bad ; but if put 
in the vessel which has contained flesh before, it will speedily 
become tainted. The reason of these facts is simply this, that 
decaying emanations or contact with decaying substances have the 
power of communicating the same state of decay to a fresh sub- 
stance. Pitting potatoes, as in former years, is most certain de- 
struction to the tubers of the present season. Pits are so con- 
structed that the moisture is retained, the potatoes are in contact 
one with another, the heat generated by decay is allowed to re- 
main, and the most favourable circumstances are united for pro- 
ducing speedy destruction. I myself have seen instances in which 
potatoes pitted perfectly sound on the Saturday were one mass of 
black slime on the INIonday. Recollect that almost every potato 
in the country is diseased, properly so to speak — that is, that its 
cellular tissue has not been durably formed, and that its preserva- 
tion wholly depends upon your putting it beyond the possibility of 
decay. 
As an abstract statement, without referring to its practicability, 
the best mode of treating the potatoes of the present year is just 
to look upon them and try to preserve them as gardeners do their 
apples. The best mode certainly is, when practicable, to spread 
them upon a dry floor, each potato slightly separated from the 
other, and to allow a current of air freely to pass through the room. 
The gardener does this in the case of apples because the plan 
♦ombines dryness, coldness, and removal of putrid emanations. 
But this plan is impracticable when we have to deal with the en-- 
