THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE. 



327 



garden vegetable ? Why is it not converted into an 

 article of commerce, as meal and flour, of wheat, oats, 

 &c? 



In order to show you that such might be done, I 

 shall now beg your attention to the samples which I 

 have the honour to present. 



The first is the tvliole meal of potato, analogous to the 

 whole meal of wheat. In that sample is contained 

 starch, oil, and gluten, in or about tlie proportions I 

 have stated ; and strange to say, that preparation will 

 scarcely change by either time or climate. I have had 

 similar sent to the tropics, and it has been returned 

 perfectly unchanged ; and a quantity made under my 

 direction, at the South Dublin Union, in the year 

 1846, remained for two years in the cellars of that esta- 

 blishment, without decaying or taking mould. 



The second preparation is i\\e first flour of the potato, 

 in fact a pure farinacious matter, deficient only in glu- 

 ten; therefore not desirable for the manufacture of 

 bread by itself, but specially desirable when mixed 

 with Wheaten flour. 



The third preparation is the second flour of the 

 potato ; it contains gluten and oil, and is capable of 

 making by itself a very nutritious bi-ead. 



The fourth preparation is a substitute for oaten wea?,and when 

 intermixed with a small quantity of the latter, the porridge 

 made from it is highly nutritious, and scarcely to be distiuguished 

 from oatmeal porridge. 



It must he evident that such productions of the potato are 

 capable of being converted into a great variety of food ; and, 

 with your permission, I shall read you a short deacription of a 

 d^jeuaer supplied by the potato, or nearly so. 



I would now beg attention to the results to be obtained by 

 the nation, by manipulating the potato as proposed, and thus 

 increasing the quantum of food to be stored up for the public 

 use. 



The argument used against the general cultivation of the 

 potato is, that it contains 75 per cent, of water, whilst wheat 

 and oats contain, say but 5 ; and that therefore it is unsuited 

 for cultivation as a staple article of food, because, weight against 

 weight, grain gives 95 per cent, of food, while potatoes give 

 but 25 per cent. And it was also assumed that the dry pro- 

 duct of the potato wag simply starch — which is an error. 



But the question in reality is — not the quantum of food 

 to be found in a given weight of potatoes, as compared with a 

 given quantity of wheat : it is, the quantum capable of being 

 produced from a given quantity of land. The former is, I 

 conceive, the grand mistake which has been made on the sub- 

 ject. All the arguments used, to abolish the cultivation of the 

 potato, have been founded on this misconception. It has been 

 designated the " root of evil"— gravely declared by authority 

 to have " little or no nutrition as compared with grain" — has 

 been called " the most wasteful crop, and the least desirable 

 food" — all because it contains 75 per cent, of water, which has • 

 in reality, nothing to do with the question of the quantum and 

 quality of the nutriment to be obtained by its cultivation, as I 

 shall now hope to prove to you. 



Cultivate an acre of land with potatoes, and a similar quan- 

 tity with wheat, and convert the produce from each into dry 

 matter. Then taking the lowest average production of the 

 potato, and the general average of wheat, the result will be 

 found as follows : — 



The dry matter of potato will give a 



total of 4,07G lbs. per acre. 



Whilst the dry matter of wheat will 



give but .. 1.055 „ „ 



There will be found ia the produce of 



the potato 3,427 lbs. starch. 



„ „ wheat 825 „ „ 



„ „ potato 604 „ gluten. 



„ „ wheat 185 „ 



„ „ potato 45 „ od. 



„ „ wheat the same. 



Thus the actual quantity of food to be produced from an 

 acre of land cultivated with potatoes is nearly four times the 

 quantity from an acre of land cultivated with wheat ; and the 

 quantum of nutrition in the dry matter of potato, weight for 

 weight with wheat, is almost alike. 



Therefore if the sime extent of land now cultivated with 

 wheat be devoted to the culture of the potato, and converted 

 into meal, flour, &c., 'as I propose the quantum of food 

 equally nutritive to be had from the potato, aud stored up 

 for national use, wdl be nearly four times the quantity of food 

 to be had from the culture of wheat. 



I should then hope, if you find my figures correct' and my 

 facts true, that I shall be honoured by this section in support 

 of my proposition, which is one open to the whole community 

 to test, and most simple and inexpensive in the process of 

 manipulation. J. W. R. 



AWARD OF THE 



DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND'S F.ARM 

 PREMIUMS. 



The annual competition for the premiums given by his 

 grace the Duke of Nurthumbetland, for the best-managed 

 farms ou his grace's estates at Stanwick, and those of the 

 landowners on the adjacent parishes, came to a close last week. 

 For the most part, agricultural competition is confined to 

 stock aud implements ; but it seems to have occurred to his 

 grace that it was highly desirable to afford some similar im- 

 pulse to improvement over the entire farm, and to apply a 

 test, success under which woidd require excellence in every 

 departa^ent of a well-cultivated farm. His grace, therefore, 

 offered a prize of £30 for a farm exceeding two hundred acres, 

 aud £15 for a farm not exceeding two hundred acres, but 

 more than twenty acres. The prizes were announced to be 



open for competition to all tenant farmers residing in the 

 townships of Stanswick, Aldbrough, Melsonby, Gales, Ualton, 

 Forcett, Eppleby, East and West Layton, Caldwell, Barforth, 

 Cliffe, Maufield, and to all tenants of hia grace in Yorkshire. 

 The awards, it was intimated, would be given for good cul- 

 tivation, state of fences and gates, roads, water- courses, 

 buildings (as far as they depend on tenants), live stock, im- 

 plements, best-kept accounts, use of artiQcial manures or the 

 contrary, and including every thing connected with good hus- 

 bandry, the prizes to be adjudged by three competent judges, 

 when the crops were near maturity. The prizes were arranged 

 to be given for three years, and a successful competitor was 

 not to be entitled to gain a prize in two consecutive years, 



