PITTING POTATOES.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 25, 12 January 1878, Page 3

PITTING POTATOES.

At a recent meeting of tho East Lothian Club (says the "Sydney Mail)," Mr Durie, Barney inline, m speaking of pitting potxtojs, said the-first requisite was to get a dry" place for .ths potatoes. But h^" did not believe m dicing deep holes to store potatoes. If the surfasj of the ground was simply levelled, that was enough. He put his potatoes m roes of 4< feet wide, and as high as he could. He put on a')out b inches of straw, and very litiL; soil. By giving a considerable quantity of straw, they require much loss soil, and with little soil th re was less growth, m spring. He did not over over his pits at once to the lop with soil. He found that when potatoes were covered with a great quantity of earth up closely they were much more ready to grow m the- pit m spring. Mr Smith, Stevenson Mains, remembered that long before the disease began they used to make their potato pits fully the width of a common cart, but since the disease got so common they found it advisable to make the pits narrower, and empty the cart-loads from the side, instead of the end of the pits. No rule could apply alike o% every farm m potato pitting, no more than m other operations. If the soil, were clayey and the subsoil stiff, it stood to reason that they could not make the pits so deep as upon light sandy land. If the laud were dry they might take out about the depth of a spade of soil, but if the soil were heavier, as it mostly was m East Lothian, they should have the potatoes as near the surface as possible. On his farm he cleared only as much soil from the bottom of the pit a» would enable them to work with shovels— about two or three inches. He made his pits about four feet wide, and his practice was* to cover the potatoes first slightly with straw, and then put on about three inches of soil. He did not believe m putting soil to the very top of the pit, because if the potatoes; were green or damp they must of necessity have air and means of evapo ration to kee p well. Th en he thatch ed the whole of the roof over with straw, covering the soil as well as the top, and this generally answered the purpose remarkably well. He could get all the potatoes m stormy and frosty weather as conveniently as m. fresh. Mr Belfrage, Samuel-on-Mains, thought that^ when potatoes were being lifted, "all the diseased and frdsted anes r as well as those gathered after the harrows should, be kept separate from the healthy and! good tubers. He formed his pits about two inches deep and fouri feet wide, giving » covering o£ four inches of good wheat straw and about the same of soiL He did! not. cover the to p o£ the pit all at once,, ■but finished that pit some tune-: afterwards, towards the end: b£ November, but a. little depended an. thet ' weather--