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SILK MANUAL, AND 



Canal and the Delaware, 275 boats, and others are 

 employed by individuals. On the Morris Canal, 

 there are 250 boats employed in this trade. The 

 number of vessels laden with coal at Philadelphia 

 and Bristbl in 1834, was 469. The amount of 

 Lehigh coal shipped coastwise during the same 

 year was 32,154 tons, of which 14,006 tons Avere 

 shipped from Newark. 



The number and description of vessels cleared 

 from the river Schuylkill, laden with coal, during 

 the year 1834, were as follows: 72 brigs, 1122 

 schooners, and 420 sloops. The amount of ton- 

 nage of the boats employed in the transportation of 

 coal from the Lehigh mines, is 22,150 tons ; on 

 the Schuylkill, 24,733. 



The value of improvements and property con- 

 nected with and arising from the anthracite coal 

 trade of Pennsylvania in the three great coal fields 

 is estimated by a committee of the Legislature of 

 that State as follows, viz : rail roads and canals 

 made by companies and individuals, including part 

 of the State canals four hundred eigety-nine 

 miles, 9,750,93742 ; collieries, boats, cars, &c. 

 1,270,280 ; capital invefjted in coal lands, 4,900,000 ; 

 mining capital, 480,000 ; value of towns in the 

 coals fields, 3,375,000 ; making an aggregate of 

 $19,176,217 42 ; to which may be added the value 

 of storehouses, wharves, landings, &c. in Pliila- 

 delphia, New York and other places, together with 

 the value of vessels and capital employed insliip- 

 ping coal. 



.The bituminous coal lands m Pennsylvania are 

 supposed by the same Committee to comprehend 

 an extent of 21,000 square miles, .and the anthra- 

 cite of 975 square miles. Since the opening of 

 the anthracite coal trade in 1820, its average 

 annual increase has been 33 per cent. The Com- 

 mittee believe that it will continue during the next 

 ten years to increase in the same ratio ; in which 

 case, the consumption in 1843 will be 10,510,980 

 tons, the value of which, at $5 per ton, will be 

 $52,544,450. Supposing the increase not to exceed 

 one half of the above estimate, the trade of that 

 year, in the article of coal alone, will amount in 

 value to twenty-six millions dollai-s. — Boston Daily 

 Advertiser. 



USE OF THE POTATO. 



In the December number of the Edinburgh 

 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, Mr R. McAdam 

 gives an article on tiie history and uses of tlie po- 

 tato. Although this vegetable was known to 

 Europeans soon after the discovery of America, 

 yet, for more than one hundred years, its merits 

 were unknowm to the public. Not until about the 

 middle of the 18th century, was it cultivated as a 

 field crop in Great Britain. It has since been rap- 

 idly SI reading over the world. Now millions and 

 millions of bushels are annually cultivated, in a 



comparatively few years, it will be cultivated in 

 other vast and populous portions of the globe ; and 

 thus, even the present immense quantity will be 

 many times quadrupled. We make a few ex- 

 tracts on the uses of the tuber. — JV. Y. Farmer. 



Cooking potatoes in various ways, — There is 

 perhaps no species of food that can be consumed 

 in a greater variety of ways, than the potato. 

 Among us, the only modes in use are three or four, 

 such as boiling, roasting, or frying ; but our French 

 neighbors, who sui-pass us, and all the world, in 

 everything relating to cookery, at least so far as 

 infinite variety is concerned, have several other 

 ways of preparing this root. A French gentle- 

 man invited to dinner thirtytwo of his friends, 

 promising to each a different dish, and yet all com- 

 posed of the same material. They assembled, 

 found before each dish a cover, and, upon taking 

 their seats, discovered that each guest had really 

 a different dish, though all formed of eggs! One 

 of the company immediately repeated the invita- 

 tion to all the persons present for the next day, 

 when he promised to regale them in a similar man- 

 ner, on another single substance, metamorphosed- 

 into thirtytwo different forms. They came and 

 dined very comfortably on thirtytwo distinct and 

 palatable dishes, all composed of potatoes. 



Frosted Potatoes. — It is a very remarkable cir- 

 cumstance, that in /rosfcf/ potatoes, it is only the 

 juice, or liquid y)art of the root, that is affected, 

 and not at all the farina or flour which may be 

 equally well extracted, and will be found as white 

 as .f it had not been frozen, provided the root is 

 not quite rotted, which in the process of time it 

 will become. The following singular illustration 

 of this took place in 1794 : A field of potatoes at 

 Camstradden, Dumbartonshire, was laid under 

 water, by a sudden rise of Lochlomond. A quantity 

 of these was got up, and in part brought home. 

 Being wet, they were laid on the floors of out- 

 houses to dry 1 but, in a few days they were so 

 spoiled as to be unfit for feeding cattle. A 

 heap of the potatoes was left ou the groimd ; 

 when turned over next spring, some starch was 

 found at the bottom, which excited a suspicion, 

 that though the root had been affected by the frost, 

 yet that the flour had remained uninjured. This 

 was found to be the case ; and a quantity of the fa- 

 rina was collected from the heap, part of which 

 was distributed in Dumbartonshire, and the remain- 

 der was brought to Stirling, in 1804. As arrow- 

 i-oot had become fashionably about that time ^it was 

 often used as a substitute, and many ate of it with- 

 out knowing the diffei-ence. In 1825, a dish of it 

 was made with milk, and two gentlemen who sup- 

 ped on it declared that they would not have known 

 it from arrow root. A specimen of this same flour 

 of 1794 was sent to Sir John Sinclair in 1826, and it 

 seemed as good as any produced from the potatoes 



