On the Potato Disease. 
497 
were taken, was placed in a dark bin in a cellar, the temperature being 
nearly stationary at 44°. 
Examined April 2 ; the disease did not progress the least, bvit the 
tubers appeared in much better condition than any other lot. 
I might go on enumerating forty experiments with sulphur, 
lime, salt, &c., but as I found nothing capable of curing the 
disease, nor any nostrum that would stay its progress, I feel that 
it would only be wasting the valuable time of the Society were I 
to submit them to your consideration. 
Every cultivator of the potato is aware that a dark situation is 
indispensable for preserving the potato fit for food ; and the ex- 
perience of several years, particularly the last, has fully convinced 
me that a cold situation is quite as much so. A perfectly dry 
atmosphere has been very strongly urged as being one of the 
indispensables in the preservation of the potato ; but the whole 
course of my experience has confirmed me in a different opinion. 
I do not wish it to be understood that the opposite extreme would 
be advisable, but I do most emphatically assert, that if the atmos- 
phere of a potato-house is dry enough to cause the soil on the 
floor to become dust, the tubers will not be so good or so firm 
after seven months' incarceration as they would be with a moderate 
degree of moisture in the atmosphere. Not being possessed of 
an hyjrrometer, I had no means of ascertaining the correct quan- 
tity of moisture contained in the atmosphere of the cellar men- 
tioned in N o. 7 of my experiments in storing ; but some idea 
may be formed by the fact, that the earth on which the potatoes 
were placed lost 13 per cent, of its weight in drying. 
These experiments, coupled with nearly twenty years' practical 
experience in house and pit-storing, have confirmed me in the 
opinion that no homestead should be without a good potato-house. 
The expense of erecting a building of this sort would be but 
trifling compared with the advantage of it to every one who either 
grow or store in a quantity for the use of the family. 
I have been in the habit of storing our potatoes in a cellar (as 
above referred to) set apart for the purpose, during which time we 
have been nearly free from the complaints that have been so preva- 
lent amongst potato-growers for the last ten years previous to 1845, 
and the disease of that year progressed much less in it (as may 
be seen by the experiments before mentioned) than those stored 
under any other circumstances excepting those stored in mould. 
Now to store a large quantity of potatoes in the soil, so that they 
shall not touch each other; would require a large piece of ground, 
and that in a situation that is not always to be found, which should 
be in the shade of some w all or other building that would prevent 
the sun from shining on the heap. Besides, there is a great deal 
of trouble in thus putting them away, and likewise in taking them 
