lSl5.] Manufacture of Fariva from Pclatoes. 35S 



satisfactory proof, tliat the same quantity of land will yield above 

 one half more of farina or flour where potatoes are cultivated, than 

 if the same land was applied to the production of flour from wheat. 



I have proved from experiment, that 2619 lbs. of pure farina or 

 floor may be produced from an acre of land planted with potatoes, 

 and only 1660 lbs. of flour from an acre of wheat. It will th«refore 

 be obvious that, if we can apply this great excess to the same pur- 

 poses as the flour of wlieat, the advantages arising from it will be 

 of the highest importance to the community. We now require 

 from foreign countries about 500,000 quarters of wheat annually, 

 for which we incur an expenditure of about two millions sterling, 

 in ordinary vears, and which has increased in years of scarcity to 

 upwards of seven millions sterling, and there seems no probability 

 that, under the continuance of the present system of cultivation, 

 we shall ever amvc at the period when we can supply our own 

 wants, and feel independent of foreign aid for one of the first 

 articles of subsistence. 



We have had for tlie last ten years not only a course of favour- 

 able seasons, but the farmer has had in the greater part of that 

 period the benefit of high prices to stimulate his exertions to the 

 greatest possible production of corn; and if they have finlod, under 

 such favourable circumstances to satisfy our wants, what evil may 

 we not expect if the seasons should prove unpropitious, arid the 

 Inconveniences of our situation aggravated by scarcity ? I admit 

 that the prospect of supplies from foreign countries may be great ; 

 but wc should recollect, that only a few rnonths have elapsed since 

 the ports of Europe and America were siiut against us, at only 

 open on a system of license, and that in a situation of dependance 

 which no wcll-wislier to his country can be desirous to see recur, 

 nor the possibility of which he will not fee"] anxious to jirevenf. 

 This, then, is one of the advantages vvTiich will attend the con- 

 Sumption of potatoe flour in bread ;■ the earth yields it so much 

 more abundantly, that the very first year's cultivation of potatoes 

 for that purpose, to the extent of only 25,000 acres, would relieve 

 us from the necessity of any foreign importation, and instead of 

 importing, we should speedily become an exporting country. Potatoes 

 are found to possess such highly nutritive properties, that it seems 

 )iardly necessary to enter upon that subject. They constitute, it is 

 well known, in their natural state, the principal food of the Irish, 

 and they are daily forming a great part ot our own. This farina or 

 flour, which contains the substantial nourifhii'g properties of the 

 root, deprived of its watery particles, cannot but lie highly nutri- 

 trious ; the use of it, therefore, in bread, is nut likely to be the 

 Jubject of dispute, provided it is in tliat state palatable, and can be 

 afforded at a price not exceeding the price of wheaien Hour. That 

 ft possesses the first-mentioned property, I have only to refer to the 

 hread produced to the Society, containing difl'crciit proportions of 

 this (lour, any, and all of which will, 1 believe, be found as 

 tJ'holcsomc and ngretfabic ns bread made wholly of wheaten flour. 

 Vol.. V. N« V. Z 



