PITTING OF POTATOES.

Western Star, Issue 143, 3 June 1876, Page 7

PITTING OF POTATOES.

After a recent meeting of the East Lothian Club, Mr Durie, Barneymains, ■said the first requisite was to get a dry place for the potatoes; But hp did not believe in digging deep holes'lo' Store potatoes. If the surface of the ground was simply levelled, that was enough. He put his potatoes in rows of four feet wide, and as high as he could. He put on about six inches of straw, and rery little soil. By giving a considerable quantity of straw, they require much less soil, and with little soil there was less growth in spring. He did not cover the pits at once ,to the top; with soil. He found that, when potatoes were covered with a great quantity of earth closely up, they were much more ready to grow in the pit in spring. Mr Smith Stevenson Mains, remembered that r 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 pita narrower, and empty the cartloads fyom the side instead of the ends of pita. No rule could apply alike bn every farm in potato pitting, no more than in other operations. If the soil were clayey and the subsoib stiff, it stood to reason that they could not make the pits so deep as upon light sandy land! If the land were dry they might take out about the depth of a spade of soil, but if the soil were heavier, as it mostly was in East Lothian, they should have the potatoes as near the surface as possible. On his farm. ho cleared only as much soil from the bottom of the pit as 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 in putting, soil to the-very top of the pit because if the potatoes were green or damp they must of nbcessity ; liavo air and evaporation to keep well. Then he thatched, the whole of the pit over the straw, covering the soil as well as the top,, and this generally answered his purpose remarkably well. He could get at. thepotatoes in stormy and frosty weather >as conveniently as in fresh; Mr Belfrage, Samuelston Mains,'thought, that, when potatoes were being lifted, all the diseased and frosted ones, 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 four feet wide, giving a covering of four inches of good wheat straw, and about the same of soil. He did not cover ’ the top of the pit at all at once, but finished the pit some time afterwards, towards the end of November, but not alittle depended on the weather.