XXXVl INTRODUCTION. 



■would make a hearty nutritious bread ; fuch bread as 

 would not only fufEce to carry the bulk of a country, with 

 caufe of thankfulnefs, through a feafon of fcarcity, but fon:ie 

 of thofe mixtures might be deemed even pleafant for com- 

 mon ufe. To thofe mixtures, it is well known, a large num- 

 ber of perfons in country places had fuccefsful and feafon- 

 able recourfe. I fay fcafonable^ becaufe, however popular 

 opinion might vary, as it certainly did, about the real or 

 fuppofed fcarcity of wheat in the laft two years, it was a fa£t 

 undoubted by many diligent and candid enquirers, that the 

 fcarcity of wheat was real; and but for the refort Xajuhjl'i- 

 tuteSy and bounties for Importation, muft have been more 

 feverely felt. But there was one article of farming produce, 

 which within the laft twenty years has become abundant 

 beyond what our forefathers had any expectation of, and 

 which is now defervedly recommended as of prodigious na- 

 tional importance, i. e. the article of potatoes : to the ufe of 

 this article in bread it was to be expected much regard (hould 

 be paid — and the fa£l was fo. This Society was not want- 

 ing to promote experiments which feveral of its moft active 

 members were afliduous in making, to afcertain the degree 

 of utility refulting from the beft proportions of fuch a mix- 

 ture, and the degree of advantage. It was found to be a 

 faft, that with no inconvenient trouble, the proportion of 

 one-third potatoes to two-thirds of wheat-flour, or one- 

 third wheat and one-third barley- flour, (but efpecially the 

 former) would make a wholefome nutritious bread: — It 

 was found alfo that to take mealy potatoes, frefli boiled 

 and peeled, and break them up warm in the fponge, was 

 an advantageous mode of ufing them. The refult of dif- 

 ferent experiments, as to the proportional weight of bread 

 arifing from the ufe of potatoes, was various — perhaps de- 

 pending 



