Potato Culture. 



of starch in their constituents must 

 be rendered more nutritious when ex- 

 posed to the action of heat. 



Potatoes fed in a raw state to stock 

 are laxative in their effects, and are 

 often given to horses as a medicine 

 in cases of " hidebound " with decid- 

 ed benefit. Bots, which have been 

 known to live twenty-four hours im- 

 mersed in spirits of turpentine, die 

 almost instantly when placed in pota- 

 to-juice ; hence a common practice 

 with horsemen, where bots are sus- 

 pected, is to first administer milk and 

 molasses to decoy the parasites from 

 the coating of the stomach, and then 

 drench the animal with the expressed 

 juice of potatoes. A decoction made 

 by boiling the parings of potatoes in 

 .a small quantity of water is often 

 used as a wash to kill vermin on 



cattle. Raw potatoes, fed occasion 

 ally and in small quantities, are a 

 good tonic for stock of any kind 

 which is kept principally on hay ; but 

 all experiments show that when the 

 potato is used for fattening purposes, 

 the tubers should in some way be 

 cooked, that the animal to which 

 they are fed may derive from them 

 the greatest possible amount of nu- 

 triment. Repeated experiments de- 

 monstrate the fact that horned cattle 

 or hogs lay on as much fat from the 

 consumption of two thirds of a given 

 quantity of potatoes properly cooked 

 as they will by eating the entire quan- 

 tity in a raw state. In point of nu- 

 triment as cattle-food, two pounds of 

 potatoes are considered equivalent to 

 one pound of hay. 



