text:  Had the precaution been used of taking up the crop in small quantities at a time or of spreading the potatoes on the ground when the weather was fair or in sheds when wet--and of allowing them to be exposed to the air until they had became tolerably firm and dry; and had the sound potatoes been then selected by hand piled together and afterwards put into smaller pits it is probable that a much less proportion of any crop that was taken up would have been lost