THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



215 



the original outlay, aud the constant preparation of fuel 

 and other articles. In small oocupatioas, horses will 

 yet be the moving power, as the animals are on the 

 iarra, and do not incur any additional outlay in the use. 



It is the grand aim of every active business to pro- 

 duce a result with the least possible cost ; to expend a 

 greater cost, with a prospect of a proportionate return ; 

 and to make a very large expenditure, upon a rational 

 calculation of a corresponding increase. In every case, 

 the secret lies between the outgoings and incoming — in 

 the balance of payments and receipts. A certain amount 

 of means is required to produce a result ; and upon the 

 provision and adjustment of these means the affair de- 

 pends for the profitable execution. An implement to 

 perform one purpose, and if that purpose is limited, is 

 a useless expenditure of money : it stands idle in the 

 shed, paying neither interest nor capital. All tools 

 cannot be varied in the purpose, but as much as pos- 

 sible. A horse standing in the stable does not repay 

 cost and keep ; an implement in the cart-shed sinks into 

 idleness the moving power of capital. A tool of one 

 use must have an extent of application, in which it can 

 work the just contribution. A reaping machine at .£'40 

 must have a large extent, and also the number of fa- 

 vourable circumstances : without these adjuncts, the 

 effect must fail ; and in small occupations the use will 

 not be obtained. 



All such cases as the present consideration are to be 

 determined by first principles, as the whole value hinges 

 on some single point. The multitudinous variety of farm 

 implements that is now exhibited, only serves to con- 



found the choice and perplex the judgment. Minute 

 differences spend much time in the examination ; and a 

 formidable array of screws, bolts, and nuts serves 

 loiterers with an excuse for adjusting. Agriculture is a 

 simple performance. Its principles are obvious, and of 

 the first occurrencfe ; and its implements must be corre- 

 sponding. 



An expensive article must have a range of utility, in 

 order to allow the performances to repay capital with 

 interest ; or it must be applied to more than one pur- 

 pose, that from each may be drawn a portion of the re- 

 payment. A tool of one purpose must be cheap, that 

 the single performance makes repayment. 



On those points the judgment of the farmer must be 

 exercised — his prudence and economy. His capital 

 must not lie dead in the shed of implements, which, 

 being inanimate, do not possess the power of procrea- 

 tion, but must be continually employed to supply the 

 place of increase. Use comes into the place of fecun- 

 dity, which is a chief point in the animal creation. As 

 well keep animals that do not procreate, as idle imple- 

 ments, or that are but little employed. Much unneces- 

 sary expense, labour, and show are occasioned from 

 want of this primary consideration. The principle must 

 be established, not singly, but combined, and the details 

 performed in a just comparison. 



A sound economy is a sound understanding brought 

 into action. It is calculation realized : it is the doctrine 

 of proportion reduced into practice : it is foreseeing 

 contingencies, and providing against them : it is expect- 

 ing contingencies, and being prepared for them. 



THE MANUFACTURE AND CONSUMPTION OF STARCH. 



There are some industries of the extent and im- 

 portance of which w-e have but a very vague idea. 

 Amongst these have hitherto been the manufacture and 

 consumption of starch, in the broadest or chemical 

 sense of the term, not limiting it to the more ordinary 

 public acceptation of the product for laundry and stif- 

 fening jiurposes. It is only when such subjects are 

 occasionally taken up by scientific societies or public 

 bodies as the text for discussion, that the various 

 statistics and details of origin, sources of supply, pro- 

 cesses of manufacture, cost, growth, demand, and 

 various applications, are gradually elicited and deve- 

 loped, and much hidden trade information is thus 

 brought to light. We have an instance of this in a 

 paper delivered a few weeks ago, before the members 

 of the Society of Arts, "On Starches, the Pui'poses to 

 which they aie Applied, and Improvements in their 

 Manufacture," by Dr. F. Crace-Calvert, of Man- 

 chester. 



Since the abolition of the duty on starch in 1833, a 

 very great impetus has been given to its manufacture 

 for commercial purposes ; and various roots and grains 

 have been laid under contribution to supply the im- 

 mense quantity consumed, both in domestic as well 

 as manufacturing circles. Calico printing, in its pre- 

 sent extraordinary development, requires thousands of 

 tons yearly of soluble materials for stiffening them, and 

 for thickening'the mordants and colours used. Formerly, 

 until it became insufficient as a supply and too expen- 

 sive, gum arable was largely used. But now a great 

 variety of artificial gums, or "gum substitutes" as 

 they arc termed, are prepared from potato and wheat 

 flour and sago. 



About ten years ago the quantity of starch made was 

 estimated at about 20,000 tons per annum ; but the 



manufacture has necessarily progressed with the in- 

 creased production of cotton goods and the advance of 

 population. And, moreover, this estimate did not 

 have regard to the chemical starches, if we may so 

 term the dextrines or British gums. These are farinas 

 heated to a temperature of 250 to 300 degrees, which 

 are thus rendered soluble as a gum, and come into 

 extensive use for adhesive labels of every kind, whether 

 they be goods, labels, postage or receipt stamps, or 

 envelopes. 



When we find that one single print works in Man- 

 chester uses above 300 tons of these products annually, 

 the consumption in the kingdom must be fully 5,000 to 

 6,000 tons per annum. We are certainly within the 

 mark in estimating the trade value of the whole starch 

 manufacture of the United Kingdom at over £600,000. 

 But to this we have to add the value of the starches 

 and like substances imported from abroad, which 

 amount to upwards of £300,000 more. With these 

 large demands for starch here, the manufacturers 

 necessarily Fought for the most abundant, cheap, and 

 productive material. In the United States they resort 

 to Indian corn flour, maize being the great cereal staple. 

 Here we fall back upon wheat flour, rice, or potato 

 flour, according to the supply, price, and purpose. 

 The progress of colonization and of experimental in- 

 quiry will, we doubt not, ere long, relieve us li-om the 

 necessity of trenching upon food products for a starch 

 material intended to be applied merely in manufactures. 

 Attention only requires to be more prominently di- 

 rected to this point. As Dr. Calvert observed, it was 

 a great pity that staple articles of human food should 

 be transformed and decomposed in order to get from 

 them some 20 per cent, of this commodity of slarch ; 

 whilst in other parts of the world things were produced 



