414 ^'^ *^^ ^{^ 9f ^i^^^'i »« Drying Mclt^ l^» ^^Xm 



that time the power of oxyoren, In (limulatlng the germination 

 of feeds, was not generally known. ;- .7, 



It afterwards occurred, to try whether potatoes might not be 

 dried by the heat of fteam, fo as to preferve ali their principles 

 unchanged. . 



For this purpofe a few of them were boiled, their (kins taken 

 cfF, and bruifed by a blunt ftick, ufually employed for that pur^ 

 pofe. The bruifed potatoes were equally fpread upon the tin- 

 ned plate already defcribed, and frequently ftirred, while fteara 

 was blown into the barrel. 



In drying, the potatoes were confiderably reduced in bulk, and 

 concreted into fmall hard bits of various fize ; but few exceeds 

 ing the ordinary fize of peas.^ Thefe bits were pounded in a 

 'mortar, and reduced to a meal or flour, which retained the na- 

 tural tafte of the potato, only more concentrated. 



Parcels of this meal were expofed in rooms without fire, and 

 did not exhibit any fenfible tendency to abforb moifture, or to 

 become damp; while, in the fame places, oat-meal, ground from 

 oats hard diied, became fenfibly damp, and increafed in weigh^. 

 Other parcels were repeatedly expofed to very intenfe froft, and 

 as long as my obfervations were afterwards continued, they ne- 

 yer exhibited any fenfible alteration of quality, in confcquencc 

 of the froft. 



Thefe experiments were made during the winter of 1794.5, 

 when the ground was covered with deep fnow •, and, as 1 left 

 the place early in fpring, I had no opportunity of trying whe- 

 ther other roots, or plants, might not be preferved, by drying 

 them with fteam, as well as potatoes ; nor has any opportunity 

 cf following out thefe experiments ever occurred to me fince. 



Perhaps the failure of germination in the barley may have 

 been caufed by the extreme cold which prevailed while the ex- 

 periment was made. My idea was to fiibjetl the barley to "a 

 warm fummer fliower, from the fteam condtnfed on the tinned 

 plate above it, and to preferve its heat, as nearly as I could, from 

 ico°to 150°, which is the heat exhibited by good foils, eveh 

 early in the feafon, after expofure to the fun's rays. But how- 

 ever I might manage matters during the day, I always found my 

 barley nearly frozen next morning. Perhaps, in an apparatus 

 of large dimenfions, where fudden variations of temperature 

 cannot take plac^, the experimeat might have fucceeded better*. 



But whatever caufe may have obftrufled the germination of 

 the grajn, I flatter myfelf that feme ufeful refults may bii. d(^- 

 duced from the experiments I have attempted to defcribe^' - 

 j^ I. That the beft pule malt for making beer, riiay be produced, 

 ^i'nd^dhly produced, by drying 1! with ftea<n. 



2, 



