Book VI. THE POTATOE. 785 



scraped and washed tubers cut into small pieces and steeped in water; and a spirit is dis- 

 tilled from mashed potatoes fermented, so as to change a portion of the starch into sugar. 

 In general it is found that three and a half bushels of potatoes afford the same quantity 

 of spirit as one of malt. 



4868. Among extraordinary applications of the jwtatoej may be mentioned cleaning 

 woollens, and making wine and ardent spirit. 



4869. Cleaning woollens. The refuse of potatoes used in making starch when taken 

 from the sieve, possesses the property of cleansing woollen cloths, without hurting their 

 color ; and the water decanted from the starch powder is excellent for cleansing silks, 

 without the smallest injury to the color. 



4870. Wine, of considerable quality, may be made from frosted potatoes, if not so much 

 frosted as to have become soft and waterish. The potatoes must be crushed or bruised 

 with a mallet, or put into a cider press. A bushel must have ten gallons of water, pre- 

 pared by boiling it, mixed with half a pound of hops, and half a pound of common white 

 ginger. This water, after having boiled for about half an hour, must be poured upon 

 the bruised potatoes, into a tub or vessel suited to the quantity to be made. After standing 

 in this mixed state for three days, yeast must be added to ferment the liquor. When 

 the fermentation has subsided, the liquor must be drawn off, as fine as possible, into a 

 cask, adding half a pound of raw sugar for every gallon. After it has remained in the 

 cask for tiiree months, it will be ready for use. 



4871. Ardent spirit. Potatoes that have been injured by the frost, produce a much 

 greater quantity of spirit, and of a much finer quality than those that are fresh ; they re- 

 quire a proportion of malt- wash to promote the fermentation. About one-fourth part of 

 malt-worts, or wash, ought to be fermented at least six hours before the potatoe wash is 

 joined to it ; otherwise the potatoe wash having an aptitude to ferment, will be ripe for 

 the still before the malt- wash is ready j hence the effect will be, to generate an acid which 

 renders the spirit coarse, and, when diluted with water, of a milky or bluish color. 

 "When the spirit is strong, the acid is held in solution j but appears as above, when diluted 

 with water, (Farmers Mag. vol. xvii. p. 325.) 



4872. In the application of potatoes as food for live-stocky they are often joined with 

 hay, straw, chaff, and other similar matters, and have been found useful in many cases, 

 especially in the later winter months, as food for horses, cows, and other sorts of live- 

 stock. With these substances, as well as in combination with other materials, as bean or 

 barley-meal and pollard, they are used in the fattening of neat cattle, sheep and hogs. 

 Potatoes are much more nutritive when boiled; they were formerly cooked in this 

 way, but are now very generally steamed, especially in the north. The practice has 

 been carried to the greatest extent by Curwen in feeding horses. He gives to each horse, 

 daily, one and a half stone of potatoes mixed with a tenth of cut straw. One hundred 

 and twenty stones of potatoes require two and a quarter bushels of coals to steam them. 

 An acre of potatoes, he considers, goes as far in this way as four of hay. Von Thaer 

 found them, when given to live-stock, produce more manure than any other food : 

 100 lbs. of potatoes producing 66 lbs. of manure of the very best description. The 

 baking of potatoes in an oven has also been tried with success. [Comm. Board of Agri" 

 culturey vol. iv. ) ; but the process seems too expensive. They are also given raw to stock 

 of every description, to horses and hogs washed, but not washed to cows or oxen. 

 Washing was formerly a disagreeable and tedious business, but is now rendered an easy 

 matter, whether on a large or small scale, by the use of the washing machine. 



4873. Frosted potatoes may be applied to various useful purposes, for food by thaw- 

 ing in cold water, or being pared, then thawed and boiled with a little salt. Salt, or 

 saltpetre, chaflT, or bruised oats, boiled with them, will render them fit food for cattle, 

 swine, poultry, S^c. Starch, and paste for weavers, bookbinders, and shoemakers, may 

 be made from them when too sweet to be rendered palatable, and also an ardent spirit, 

 from hydrometer proof to 10 per cent, over proof. 



4874. The diseases of the potatoe are chiefly the scab, the worm, and curl. The scab, 

 or ulcerated surface of the tubers, has never been satisfactorily accounted for. Some 

 attributing it to the ammonia of horse-dung, others to alkali, and some to the use of coal 

 ashes. Change of seed, and of ground, are the only resources known at present for 

 this malady. The worm and grub both attack the tuber, and the same preventative is 

 recommended. The only serious disease of the potatoe is the curl, and this is now as- 

 certained to be produced by the too great concentration of the sap in the tuber, and 

 this concentration, or thickening, is prevented by early taking up. This discovery was 

 first made by the farmers near Edinburgh observing that seed potatoes procured from 

 the moors, or elevated cold ground, in the internal parts of the country, never suffered 

 from the curl, and it consequently became a practice, every three or four years, to pro- 

 cure a change of seed from these districts. On enquiry, it was found, that the potatoes 

 in these upland grounds continued in a growing state till the haulm was blackened by 

 the first frosts of October. They were then taken up, when, of course, they could not 



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