Cultivation of Arable Land. Potatoes Prefer nation of Crops of. f&amp;lt;M % 



prevent the entrance of the air as much as pofljble, being always placed in that 

 part of the building that has a fouthern afpect. By this fort of houfe, and proper 

 attention to the nature of the materials of which it is formed, it feems not impro 

 bable that potatoes may be equally guarded from the danger of intenfe frofi and 

 that degree of heat which is necefTary to theirgermination in the early fpring fea- 

 fon. It has, indeed, been fuggefted, on the principle that clay or earth conftitutes 

 the warmed building for the winter feafon, and the cooled for that of the fumrner, 

 that houfes made wholly of fuch materials might anfvver well for the prefervation 

 of potatoes.* It is obvious, however, that where fuch fubftances are employed 

 alone, they muft be lefs proper, on account of their difpofition to abforb and re 

 tain moifture, and the neceffity of their being made ufeof to a very great thicknefs,. 

 as well as from their being extremely liable to crack and form openings ; incon 

 veniences that are in a great meafure avoided in the method juft defcribed, and at 

 thefame time the potatoes more perfectly fecured. 



Befides thefe means of preferving potatoes from injury while in their perfect ftate, 

 others have been fuggefted as capable of being employed with fuccefs without the 

 great expence of fire, where they are reduced into lefs bulky forms.. Thefe are 

 chiefly by bringing the fubftance of the potatoes into a pulpy Hate, either by rafp- 

 ing, pounding, or grinding, by machines or mills constructed for the purpofe, and 

 afterwards confining the pulp in a cloth, and reducing it into the form of a thin 

 cake by means of prefiure. The cakes, after this, are to be well dried, by placing 

 them upon (helves, and turning them frequently. In preparing potatoes in this 

 manner, it was found, that fuch potatoes as were peeled thinly before they were 

 reduced into pulp afforded more clean white cakes, and fuch as appeared to keep 

 better than where they were merely cleaned and formed into cakes without peeling. 

 And that, though the fubftance of the root is comprelfed into a fixth of its ordinary 

 bulk, and lofes nearly two thirds of its weight in the procefs, yet on being dreifed, 

 either by ftcam or in any other manner, it affords almoft the fame proportion of 

 food. Befides, by the addition of water in an equal quantity to that of the juice,. 

 which is forced from the pulp during the time of its comprefiion, a portion of fine 

 white flower or ftarch proper for the better forts of paftry is depoiited. 



It is conceived that, by a machine of considerable power, the cakes might even- 

 be formed at once, by merely prefling the potatoes, without their having undergone 

 the preparation mentioned above, the black fpecks and other impurities only being 

 firft removed ; and that a common cyder or cheefe prefs, with the afiiftance of a.. 

 kver to increafe the power, might be employed for the purpofe. f 



* Farmer s Magazine, vol. III. p. 318. 

 f Commercial and Agricultural Magazine, vol. II. p. 

 VOL. II. R 



