336 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



Heat being applied to the still, the liquid in it is volatilized and 

 rises as vapor into the head whence it passes down through 

 the worm in which it condenses, escaping at the bottom in a 

 liquid state that is, as alcohol. 



The whole process is exceedingly simple and may be car- 

 ried out with the crudest apparatus. To appreciate the truth 

 of this statement one should see some of the illicit stills used 

 in the mountains of Tennessee and north Georgia for the 

 making of corn whiskey. The boiling pot with its cover and 

 coil, cheap as they are, constitute the most costly portion of 

 the plant, and even these may be improvised by the aid of a 

 country tinsmith. For the rest a half dozen heavy barrels to 

 be used as vats, and the crude equipment is complete. 



Alcohol burns with a very hot but non-luminous flame. It is 

 not so explosive as gasoline, but this slowness to inflammability 

 which at first was believed to be a detriment to its use as fuel 

 in combustion engines, has been found, when properly under- 

 stood and provided for, distinctly advantageous. Now that 

 Congress has made alcohol free for industrial purposes, it is 

 estimated that potato alcohol of 94 per cent, proof can be 

 manufactured for 10 to 15 cents per gallon. To think of our 

 farmers producing from the soil the fuel which they use for 

 power purposes, and perhaps for lighting, cooking, and other 

 domestic uses, is certainly an interesting subject for contempla- 

 tion. It is as if every farm had upon it an inexhaustible oil 

 well. Or if the manufacturing is done at commercial dis- 

 tilleries, the farmer will haul his potatoes there as he now 

 hauls his sugar beets to the factory or his cream to the cream- 

 ery, receiving alcohol in exchange if he desires it. 



There are other plants besides potatoes which give promise 

 of yielding alcohol in paying quantities, most prominent 



