858 



simply to plant the potato in autumn in place of spring, because, as 

 the shoots came forth, directed by Nature, they would progress, or be 

 otherwise affected according to Nature's will. Nothing, therefore, 

 could be lost of the whole vital principle to be derived from the tuber, 

 which is absolutely essential in order to the production of a strong 

 offspring. That in planting in autumn no evil need be apprehended 

 from frost during the winter; that even, if the potato be frozen in 

 the ground, and thaw gradually afterwards, it will not be injured in 

 its vital principle. That, as regards the productive value of the po- 

 tato as a food for man, it was equally capable of being converted 

 into meal and Hour for use, in bread, soups, porridge, jelly, plumonge, 

 &c., as the meal and flour of wheat and oats, and was even more ca- 

 pable of being preserved by storage. Bread, he might add, had been 

 made from the potato so far back as the year 1814, for the use of the 

 French prisoners at Dartmoor ; and by desire of the Irish Govern- 

 ment, he (Mr. Rogers) carried into effect the manufacture of meal, 

 flour, &c., from diseased potatoes at the South Union of Dublin ; 

 that he there had bread, soups, jellies, plumonges, cakes of all kinds, 

 Siudi porridge, for the use of the paupers, and invited about 150 of the 

 scientific men of Dublin to partake of the dejeuner, served in the 

 Board-room of the South Union ; and that every description of food 

 was pronounced to be excellent ; and that it was shown a saving of 

 £1,500 a year could have been effected in feeding the paupers of the 

 Union, by the paupers themselves manufacturing the potato into 

 meal and flour ; and that the medical officers of the establishment 

 also pronounced the food to be of the best description. 



Dr. BossEY here asked Mr. Rogers what quantity of "gluten" was 

 contained in the potato in compavison with wheat. 



Mr. Rogers replied, that the actual quantit}' of gluten (that which 

 creates the bone and muscle of animals) contained in the dry matter, 

 or meal of the potato, was only about '2| per cent, less than contained 

 in the dry ruatter, or meal of wheat, and that the same quantity of 

 ground cultivated with potatoes would produce three times the weight 

 of dry matter as the same extent of ground cultivated with wheat j 

 that in addition, the whole dry matter of the potato was always capa- 

 ble of being made use of in bread, while the whole dry matter of 

 wheat was not, insomuch as the bran (in which the greater portions of 

 the gluten remained) was solely used for the food of animals ; conse- 

 quently, that the genei'al value of the meal or flour of the potato was 

 above that of the flour of wheat, and that the usual first flour of wheat, 

 in reality, only contained 8 or 9 per cent, of gluten. (Mr. Rogers 



