312 ON THE MATURATION OF GRAIN 



economise, we must boil them in their "jackets" 

 as the Irish do ; and though late, M'e must learn 

 that we require the aid of science as well to 

 cook potatoes as to grow them, and keep them 

 properly. Another deduction is, that the quality 

 of potatoes is better at the crown end. This is 

 very evident in certain varieties of the Kidney 

 sorts, where the eyes or buds are clustered thick 

 there, and are wholly wanting at the other, or 

 pendulum end. When cooked, the pendulum 

 ends of such potatoes are very mealy, and the 

 crown ends waxy in their texture, owing to this 

 difference in their component parts. Mealy 

 potatoes may be most relished, but unless the 

 best parts are carefully kept with them, they are 

 far from being the most nutritious. From the 

 azotised parts only we derive flesh and fibre for 

 the support of our frames, and though we retain 

 for other purposes in our vital economy, modi- 

 cums of the rest; we nevertheless eject the main 

 mass, as useless, out of our systems. 



Potatoes have been subject, particularly for the 

 last two seasons, to blight and disease, which have 

 rendered them unproductive to the cultivator, and 

 scarce articles of food to the consumer. In con- 

 sequence, a cry went forth that the species was 



