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ON STORING POTATOES. 
consider the black fir of Austria to be* eminently suitable.”— ‘•Quart, 
Jour 11 . Agri., June, 1836. 
On Storing Potatoes. By Sir G. S. Mackenzie, Bart.—Of 
various methods I have tried for preserving potatoes from frost, that 
practised most commonly seems to be the best, viz. making a shallow 
pit about a foot and a half deep, on a dry spot, and heaping the pota¬ 
toes like a roof, to the height of about four feet. On the heap thus 
formed straw is laid to the thickness of about eight inches, and over 
this the earth taken out of the pit, the whole being beaten firm by the 
back of a spade. Some time before the end of February, or beginning 
of March, the pit is opened, and the potatoes turned over, all shoots 
being picked off. After the heap is turned over, it may be again 
covered, and the potatoes allowed to remain a month longer, after 
which they should be removed to a barn or shed and picked. They 
should now be frequently turned over, and picked free from shoots. If 
the eyes of a potato be scooped out, it will gradually dry, if properly 
exposed, and it may then be scraped into flour, though not very white. 
In this state they will keep for an indefinite time; and as there is no 
risk of them becoming mity, as wheat flour does, dried potatoes might 
be found useful during long voyages, though potato flour is better. 
“ It ought to be generally known that there are varieties of the 
potato which, though sufficiently protected from frost, will not keep, 
under any management, for more than a few months;—do what we 
will they decay, owing to their natural constitution. Other varieties 
again will keep very long without any trouble: hence premiums should 
be offered for raising new varieties from seed possessing as many as 
possible of the qualities desirable in a potato. Long keeping is a par¬ 
ticular property belonging only to some, and not to all varieties. 
“ Some varieties of the potato are best for the table early in winter, 
and others best in spring.” There has been much complaint of potato- 
sets rotting in the ground for the two last years —“ none of my own,” 
adds Sir George, “ were affected, but some of my tenants lost large 
patches. I observed a wire-worm on some of the decayed sets; but 
whether this worm was the cause of the failure, or the failure of the 
the set induced the insect, from whose eggs the worm proceeded to lay 
them on the set, I could not ascertain.”— Ibid. 
Sir George, from numerous experiments, is fully convinced that sets 
are preferable to whole tubers for yielding a crop. 
