INTRODUCTION. XXXVli 



pending on the different degrees of farinaceous fubfbnce, 

 in different forts of potatoes, and other fmall caufes not 

 eafily afcertainable. But, on the whole, the experiments 

 went to the general eftablilhment of an opinion, which it is 

 not expe£ted will be fuperfeded, that the moft advantageous 

 mode of ufing potatoes in poor families, is that common one 

 of eating them, fimply boiled, either as a complete fubflitute 

 for bread, or of bread and other articles of confumption 

 often eaten together. In this common ftate of preparation, 

 it is well known the poor of this country have generally ufed 

 them ; and but for the abundant fupply of the article in 

 queftion, fo ufed, it is hard to' fay how innumerable families 

 of poor perfons would have fubfifted at all, under the cir- 

 cumftances to which the nation was reduced. The fevere 

 period of trial, and the cornfortable effedls felt from a large 

 cultivation of this root, have tended to confirm the hereto- 

 fore fuppofed faft, that whatever (hall be the fuccefs of po- 

 pular endeavours to bring more land into cultivation, the 

 extended culture of potatoes is an object of high import- 

 ance — and that when their various ufes are confidered, 

 in the immediate fuftenance of human life, and for the fuf- 

 taining and fattening ftock, the quantity to be raifed in this 

 country cannot eafily be too large. That cultivation, there- 

 fore, by the various improved modes of carrying it on in 

 the field, and by (hoots which would otherwife be thrown 

 away, and breaking off and tranfplanting the young tops 

 as cabbage plants, where garden beds may be conveniently 

 had for receiving them, is earneftly recommended. It can- 

 not be either expected or defired that this culture (hould 

 materially fuperftde that of corn, — the value and firji con- 

 fequence of which are not impaired by the various difco- 

 veries of the fecondary value of potatoe crops j but as po- 

 tatoes 



