shoots, and having the roots well watered in small quantities
as they are put into the other pits, the whole earthy covering being
also well watered and beaten together at the time with the back part of
the spade. This covering is to be made to the thickness of about two
feet. The same practice or process is to be repeated every time the
potatoes are turned over, which should be about once in three weeks, as
the state of the weather may be. And where the pits or heaps are not in
the shade, it is sometimes proper, when the season is very hot, to cover
them with mats supported on sticks, so as to permit a free current of
air between the mats and the heaps. In this way it is stated that these
roots have been preserved quite plump and entire in the taste until the
end of September, or till the succeeding crop becomes perfectly ripe, so
as to be used without loss, as that must always be the case where the
roots are largely employed before they are in a state of mature growth.
It is asserted, too, that in this manner potatoes are even capable of
recovering in plumpness and taste, where they have been suffered, by
improper exposure to air or heat, to become deficient in these
qualities.

STOVE BLACKING, for backs of grates, hearths, and the fronts of stoves,
is made in the following manner. Boil a quarter of a pound of the best
black lead, with a pint of small beer, and a bit of soap the size of a
walnut. When that is melted, dip in a painter's brush, and wet the
grate, having first cleared off all the soot and dust. Then take a hard
brush, and rub it till it is quite bright. A mixture of black lead and
whites of eggs well beaten together, will answer the same purpose.

STRAMONIUM. This celebrated plant, commonly called the Thorn Apple,
often grows on dunghills, and flowers in the month of July. Having
lately been discovered as possessing very powerful medical properties,
and as affording the most effectual remedy for the asthma, it is now
frequently transplanted into gardens, though its odour is extremely
offensive. A kind of herb tobacco is made of the dried leaves, mixed
with a little rosemary to prevent nausea, and a pipeful is smoked in the
evening before going to bed. The practice should be continued for some
time, or as often as asthma returns, and it will afford very sensible
relief. The plant may easily be raised from seed; but an elegant
preparation of the stramonium, or the asthmatic tobacco, may be had of
seve