Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/105

 better than if they were cut before planting. Pick off the blows and balls.

POTATOES may be spoiled by bad management in harvesting. They should be dug in cool overcast weather, and picked immediately after the hoe free from sun and air, and kept moist with much dirt about them. If dug in fine weather, and they remain exposed to the sun, they will sweat in the summer, and be soft waxy, and strong. By lying to dry in the sun they generate poison, operate as physic, and sometimes prove fatal.

IT is best to steam, boil, or bake potatoes for feeding stock. Sir John Sinclair asserts that "there is something injurious in the juices of the potatoe, in a raw state, which cooking eradicates or greatly dispels."

It is said that an excellent fodder for horned cattle may be collected from potatoe tops. It is practiced in many places in the southern states to reap about two thirds the length of the potatoe tops and dry them on mowing land in the usual way of haymaking. Several tons may be collected from an acre, and no damage to the potatoes, if taken as soon as they are ripe, and before the leaf begins to fall.

No. 1. ONE pound boiled potatoes, half a pound of sugar, four ounces of butter, one pint of flour, one quart of milk and five eggs.

No. 2. ONE pound boiled potatoes, mashed, four ounces of butter, one quart of milk, the juice of one