FARMERS' REGISTER- VALUE OF THE POTATO. 



683 



tity of coffee-powder. He asserts that this will 

 produce a liquor more airrcoable Ihan coffee. 



Chemical ingenuity has likewise converted this 

 nnst usei'u! root into subsliiutes lor many olher 

 ariiclcs; as chocolate, tapioca, and vermicelli. The 

 use of potato starch instead of arrow-root, I have 

 alrtuid}' mentioned; ami nmch of it is at present 

 .sold under the name of arrow-root, and, in France, 

 under that of lecule de ponune de terre. 



A chemist in Copenhag^en has discovered that 

 the flowers of the plant may he used in djxinfj. 

 Uy this means a beaulilhl yellow color may he oh- 

 tained, which is solid and durable. By plunginir 

 the color into blue, it becomes a perfect green. It 

 has likewise been Ibund, that the juice contained 

 in the potato will produce a pjray color of great 

 beauty. The liquor drawn off" in the process of 

 making potato-starch will clean silks, woollens, or 

 cottons, without damage to the texture or color. 

 It is also good for cleaninir wainscots. 



Potatoes are used with excellent effect in the 

 boilers of steam engines, for preventing the ga- 

 thering of a calcareous incrustation on the bot- 

 tom, which is gradually deposited from the water 

 employed. The potatoes give out a glutinous 

 .substance which entangles the particles in the 

 water, and prevents them from incrusting the iron 

 of the boiler.* A medical use of the potato has 

 been lately suggested in a valuable French publi- 

 cation; namely, as a preventive of, and even cure 

 for the scurvy. Roasted potatoes were adminis- 

 tered with perlect success to sailors afflicted with 

 the disorder, after other approved medicines had 

 been given in vain. As masted potatoes are the 

 most effictual, it seems probable that the remedy 

 depends on some of the substances contained in 

 the black liquid which boils out of potatoes, and 

 whicli is retained in roasting. 



I have now described the various uses to which 

 these valuable roots may be applied. I have 

 shown, that from them may be procured bread, 

 starch, jelly, sugar, treacle, beer, brandy, cheese, 

 butter, coffee, tapioca, dye-stuff's, size, cleansing 

 liquids, and medicine. I may close the catalogue 

 by an account taken from a work published in 

 1710, upon the virtues of herbs. The author, 

 ailer mentioning that potatoes make very good 

 find for man, cither boiled, baked, or roasted, 

 when eaten with good butter, salt, juice of oranges 

 or ieajons, and double refined sugar, then goes on 

 to speak of the virtues of what he calls the blood 

 of jiotatoes. For the mode of preparing this val- 

 uable ingredient, he reiers his readers to the de- 

 scription of the method of extracting a similar 

 blood from parsnips. After reducing them to a 

 piilp, he mixes tliera with crumbs of white bread, 

 and sprinkles tUem with white port wine: after 

 sundry distillations (which need not be recited 

 here,) "the matter is changed," says he, "into a 

 rubicund or bloody chyle." This is to be forced 

 out strongly with a press, and the juice exposed to 

 a variety of operations, "till the blood becomes 

 quite clear, and of a most perfect red." "From 

 this," he continues, "you may, if you please, sep- 

 arate, by an alembic, a thin and clear liquor, so 

 j'ou have remaining in the bottom the blood of 

 potatoes of a very glorious color! It hath all the 

 properties of the roots boiled, baked, roasted, or 

 made into bread, puddings, or broth. It invigo- 



rates to a strange degree." "The potato-blood," 

 he says, "may be taken with good effect, a spoon- 

 ful or two morning, noon, and night, in a glass of 

 choice Canaiy, JXlalaga, or other good wines!"* 



At different times considerable diversity of opin- 

 ion has been expressed by agricultural writers re- 

 specting the comparative merits of ])otatoes and 

 wheat, as articles of Ibod and culture. The most 

 violent enemy of the potato is Colibett, who 

 abuses it in no gentle terms. He styles it a de- 

 grading root, attributes to it the poverty and mise- 

 ry of the Irish, and at the same time denies its 

 superior economy. He first tries to show that 

 more actual nourishing matter is derived from an 

 acre of wheat than one of potatoes. "Then," 

 says he, "the expense of seed and planting is 

 about equal; but the potatoes require cultivation 

 during their growth, which the wheat does not; 

 and a large cost forgathering, housing, and kee|)- 

 ing, besides that of loss by li'ost: and they yield 

 nothing in the place of straw, which, Irom the 

 wheat crop, may be worth £4 or £5 an acre." 

 "Then comes," says he, "the expense of cooking. 

 Thirty-two bushels of wheat (the produce of an 

 acre,) supposing a bushel to be baked at a time, 

 would demand thirly-twn heatings of the oven. 

 Suppose a bushel of potatoes to be cooked eveiy 

 da)', in order to supiily the place of this bread, 

 then we have (to prepare the produce of an acre) 

 900 boilings of the pot, unless cold pntatoes be 

 eaten at some of the meals, and in that case the 

 diet must be c/ieernig indeed! Think of the labor, 

 think of the time, think of all the peelings, and 

 washings, and messings attending these 900 6o(7- 

 ings of the pot! For it must be a considerable 

 time before the English people can be brought to 

 eat potatoes in the Irish style; that is to say, 

 scratch them out of the earth with their paws, toss 

 them into a pot without washing, and when boil- 

 ed, turn them out on a dirty board, and then sit 

 round that board, peel the skin and dirt from one 

 at a time, and eat the inside!" Again, after de- 

 scribing the process of baking, and exhorting to 

 the practice at home, he says, "and pray what is 

 pleasanter to behold? Talk indeed of your pan- 

 tomimes and gaudy shows, your processions,^ and 

 installations, and coronations! Give me for a 

 beautiful sight, a neat and smart woman, heating 

 her oven and setting her bread!" "And what is 

 the result of her labor? Why, good wholesome, 

 food, sufficient for a considerable family fi)r a week, 

 prepared in three or lour hours. To get Ihis^ 

 quantity of lood, jit to he eaten, in the shape of 

 potatoes, how many fires, what a washing, what 

 a boilinff, what a peeling, and v.'hat a slopping! 

 The cottage everlastingly in a litter; the woman's 

 hands everlastingly wet and dirty; the children 

 grimed up to the eyes with dust, fixed on by the 

 potato-starch, andVagged as colts; the ]ioor mo- 

 ther's time all being "devoted to the everlasting 

 boilings of the pot!"t 



We Irish can readily observe that this picture 

 is greatly overdrawn to answer the writer's pur- 

 pose; he has, indeed, made use of the Irishman's 

 own weapon, hyperbole, against him. We can 

 likewise perceive, in spite of all that has been 

 aro-ued and asserted, that the potato is not thereof 



Silliman's Journal. 



* Salmon's Herbal. 



t Cobl)elt'.s Cottage Economy. 



