ed. The tops contain a great deal of potash, and should always be
plowed in and decay in the soil where they grow, otherwise they will
rapidly exhaust the land. It is supposed that nothing will do more to
restore the former vigor and health of the potato than a liberal
application of potash in the soil in which they grow. The crop will be
much increased in a dry season by manuring in the hill, dropping the
potato first and putting the manure on the top of it.

_Gathering and Preserving._--The usual hand-digging with hoe or
potato-fork are well known, and do well when the crop is not large. But
for those who grow potatoes for market, it is better to employ the plow
in digging. Modern inventions for this purpose can everywhere be found
in the agricultural warehouses. Potatoes are well preserved in a good
cool cellar, in boxes or barrels; and are better for being covered with
moist sand. The usual method of burying them outdoor is effectual and
safe, if they be covered beyond the reach of frost, and have a small
airhole at the apex, filled with straw.

_The Potato Disease._--This is altogether atmospherical. A new piece of
land was cleared for potatoes. In the middle was a close muck, on a
coarse, gravelly subsoil. In the lowest place a ditch was dug, to carry
off the superabundance of water; from that ditch the coarse gravel was
thrown out on one side, and suffered to remain at considerable depth.
Only two or three rods distant, on one side the plat extended over a
knoll of loose sand. Potatoes were planted, from the same seed, at the
same time, and in the same manner, on these three kinds of land, side by
side. They were all tended alike, needing little hoeing or care, the
land being new. The rot prevailed badly that season. On digging the
potatoes, it was found that in the coarse gravel, where the air could
circulate almost as freely as in a pile of stove-wood, all the potatoes
were rotten: on the muck, which was unlike a peat-bog, very fine and
tight, almost impervious to the atmosphere, they were nearly all sound;
on the sand, which was quite open, but tighter than the gravel, part
were decayed and the rest sound. Their condition was graduated entirely
by the condition of the soil. It is an apparent objection to this
theory, that when the rot prevails, the best potatoes are raised on
light, sandy soils. It is said that they are open to the action of air.
To this it is replied, that whether they rot or not, in sandy so