Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1873 — Care of Irish Potatoes. [ARTICLE]

Care of Irish Potatoes.

It is frequently remarked that no other vegetable is so badly handled and so generally mismanaged as the Irish potato. The evil probably begins with the farmer, who often neglects to dig his potatoes till late in the season, when after the fall rains have set in and thoroughly soaked the ground, a snowstorm perhaps reminds him of the approach of winter. He now sets about harvesting the crop in a hurry; unskilled and careless hands, in separating the potatoes from the wet and sticky soil, cut and hack them badly with their kpeS, and the cry of rotten potatoes is heard throughout the land. The weather has now become lowery and rainy, affording little or no opportunity for drying and removing the mud from the tubers. In this condition they are gathered trp,shoveletinrto baskets from the cart, tumbled into bins in* large quantities as though they were so many stones. In this condition they are allowed to lie and steam foe months, exposed to the light and air of a warm cellar, until those most exposed turn green and are rendered nearly worthless as food. The potatoes sent to market are but little better: in fact, they often become still more bruised and injured. In the first place they are hauled in a loose state for miles—perhaps over a rough road, in a cart or wagon—and pounded and shaken about until the skin is greatly damaged. After arriving in market they are subjected to still furtner injury by being. shoveled into barrels and -boxes and suffered to stand exposed for sale in the open air and sun, or in some warm room, where they are but little better protected. After they have lain for several weeks in this manner they lose Hutch of that dryness and freshness of flavor they have wbea first dug; they become more or less

bad ilavpred, or insipid and soggy. To cap the climax tlie cooks who do not like the looks of hacked, bruised and greenlooking tubers, insist on paring them before they are cooked, a most lamentable practice, notwithstanding, for nearly all that is nutritious in a potato lies within half an inch of the skin. It follows that the hogs get the better part, while men and women have to he satisfied with a great deal of vegetable fiber and a little nutriVneitf.» WTien one is about going to harvest and store a crop of potatoes with a view to preserving their good qualities, in the first place see to it”that they are dug as soon as they are ripe, and when the ground is dry. In digging use a potato hook or fork, hut not a lioe, as it is a bad instrument if you wish to avoid cutting the tubers. Alter allowing the potatoes to lie a short time on the surface to (to, sort them, and place tlie soundest and best in barrel®, heading them tip at once, or put them into small tight bins in a cool cellar, and immediately cover them with sand in order to exclude the light and air as much as possible. Those you wish to keep for summer use gather into pits of twenty bushels each, and give them a covering of long rye straw six inches in thickness and a light covering of earth at first, increasing it at the approach of cold weather, and leaving a small vent at the top of the pits, secured from the liability of wet by a board or some other covering. They should be taken out of the pits in early spring, put into barrels, beaded up and placed in a cool cellar, or ice room, where the temperature is low enough to keep them from sprouting. In all your manipulations handle the tubers as carefully as you would apples. In this manner potatoes may he kept until new ones come again, and he nearly as fresh as when first dug.— N. Y. Herald. Ask for Prussing’s Cider Vinegar and tut.e no other. Warranted to preserve Pickles. At the Vienna World’s Fair, tlie grand medal, which was the recognition of highest excellence in reed organs of all classes and from all nations, was awarded to the Mason* Hamlin Organ Co., the well-known American manufacturers. Other American makers Were not successful in obtaining any medal.