This comes from a gardening forum, but it explains hilling so much better than anything else I have found online. I understand the idea of mounding dirt around the potato...this explains how AND why.
"Pull off the bottom leaves if you wish. If this is too much work, then yes, just cover with soil, straw, mulch, compost, etc. Hilling doesn't have so much to do with the stem or leaves as much as the tubers themselves. Hilling won't necessarily encourage potatoes to form all along the stem the higher you go. The goal of hilling is to provide a protected enough environment in order for the actual potatoes/tubers to form without turning green and developing solanine, a bitter and toxic (in significant quantities). Hilling improves drainage, minimizes tuber greening, minimizes frost damage, aids in weed control and facilitates harvesting. If you did not hill, the potatoes forming near the surface would turn green and the stolons near the surface which form the tubers may turn into foliage instead of tubers."
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