26 CHEMISTRY AND USES OF THE POTATOE. 



without any previous preparation, or from sugar previ- 

 ously made from starch. 



(94.) The process is not followed by any distiller at 

 present in the United Kingdom, for several reasons ; first, 

 because it would cause an outlay of several thousand 

 pounds for extra utensils and machinery to carry on the 

 process ; secondly, because the spirit produced from pota- 

 toes is not so good as that produced from corn ; and, lastly, 

 because our revenue laws compel us to produce as much 

 spirit from wash made from potatoes as from wash made 

 from sugar, or 25 per cent, more than from wash made from 

 corn. Thus, 100 gallons of wash at 50 of gravity is 

 charged from attenuation at the rate often gallons of spirit 

 to be produced ; and for any quantity above that made 

 or produced the duty is charged on the additional quantity 

 of spirit; but from 100 gallons of wash at 50 of gravity, 

 made from any other material than corn, twelve and a half 

 gallons of spirit are charged, whether that quantity be pro- 

 duced or not. Thus, if we were working from potatoes on 

 an extensive scale, we might have to pay thousands of 

 pounds of duty annually for spirit which we could not pro- 

 duce. There was a potatoe distillery erected near Vaux- 

 hall turnpike about fifteen or twenty years ago by a com- 

 pany of Frenchmen ; but they only worked about two 

 months, when they became insolvent, in consequence of 

 being charged by the excise with much more spirits than 

 they could possibly make from potatoe wash. 



(95.) Even frosted potatoes may be employed for the 

 production of ardent spirits ; and it is said that three bush- 

 els and a half of potatoes afford the same quantity of spirit 

 as one of malt. 



(96.) It is said that good wine may be made from frosted 



