PRACTICAL FARMER. 



23 



of that year, after having been kept for above thirty 

 years. 



Potato starch in Bread. — It is well known that 

 the manufacture of bread, even when conducted 

 by the most skilful and experienced bakers, is 

 sometimes very difficult. From the various casu- 

 alties to which wheaten flour has been liable, 

 from disease in the crop, or bad management in the 

 keeping or grinding of the grain, it frequently 

 loses some of its most essential qualities, and causes 

 the bread, in defiance of the baker's art, to contract 

 a sourness, y/hich is both disagreeable to the taste 

 and prejudicial to the health. Fortunately a rem- 

 edy has been discovered of late yeai-s ; that of 

 mixing with the flour a small quantity of potato 

 starch, previously converted into ajeUy. This kind 

 of bread is remarkably light, and keeps longer 

 moist than any other bread. It toasts much belter, 

 and makes better bread puddings. 



Potato Flour for Children. — Another most im- 

 j)ortantuse to which potato flour can be applied is 

 to give it, boiled in milk, in the pro])ortion of two 

 spoonfuls of flour to one pint of milk, to young 

 children, brought up by hand, and not at the breast 

 or after they are weaned from the breast. 



Potato Starch for Weavers. — Until of late this 

 was entirely made from wheat, and still a great 

 proportion of it is so. But if potato starch were 

 universally adopted for the purpose, as is the case 

 now throughout France, a very great consumption 

 of wheat would be saved. This substance is also 

 put to another use, namely, the making of size, 

 whiclj for some purposes, such as whitewashing, is 

 greatly superior to the common size, as it has no 

 offensive smell, and Jias a more durable whiteness. 



Potato Cheese, — The manufacture of this is 

 carried on in Thuringia and Saxony, and it has 

 the advantage of retaining its fresl mess for several 

 years, provided it be kept in close vessels. It is 

 prepared by boiling the ])otatoes, and reducing 

 them, when cold, to a pulp, rejecting skins. Sour 

 milk is added, or else sweet curd with the whey 

 pressed out, in the proportion of a pint to 5 pound 

 of pulp. It is kneaded several times, drained in 

 small baskets, and simply dried in the shade. 



Coffee from Potatoes. — A mode has been sug- 

 gested by a French chemist for converting pota- 

 toes into a substance resembling coffee. He mixes 

 some best olive oil with a certain portion of dried 

 potato floui-, and then adds a small quantity of 

 coffee powder. He asserts that this will produce 

 a liquor more agreeable than coffee. 



Potatoes used for Dyeing and Cleansing. — A 

 chemist in Copejihagen has discovei-ed that the 

 flowers of the plant may be used in dyeing. By 

 this means a beautiful yellow collor may be obtain- 

 ed, which is solid and durable. By plunging the 

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



likewise been found, that the juice contained in the 

 potato will produce a gray color of great beauty. 

 The liquor drawn off in the process of making 

 starch, will clean silks, woollens, or cottons, with- 

 out damage to the texture or color. It is also 

 good for cleaning wainscoats. 



Potatoes prevent Incrustations in Steam Boilers. 

 — Potatoes are used with excellent effect in the 

 boilers of steam engines, for preventing tlie gath- 

 ering of a calcareous incrustation on the bottom, 

 which is gradually deposited from the water em- 

 ployed. The potatoes give out a glutinous sub- 

 stance which entangles the particles in the water, 

 and prevents them from incrusting the iron of the 

 boiler. 



Potatoes a cure for the Scurvy. — A medical use 

 of the potato has been lately suggested in a valua- 

 ble French publication ; namely, as a preventive 

 of, and even cure for, the scurvy. Roasted pota- 

 toes were administered with perfect success to 

 sailoi-s aflJicted with the disorder, after other ap- 

 proved medicines had been given in vain. As 

 roasted potatoes are the most effectual, it seems 

 probable that the remedy depends on some of the 

 substances contained in the black liquid which 

 boils out of potatoes, and Avhich is retained in 

 roasting. 



Salting Butter. — The quantity of salt for 

 butter that is not to be eaten for several months 

 after salting, should not be less than half an ounce 

 of salt, mixed with two drachms of sugar and 

 two drachms of nitre, to sixteen ounces of butter. 

 The sugar improves the taste, and the nitre gives 

 the butter a better color, while both of them act 

 with the salt in preserving the butter from ran- 

 cidity. If the salt is not minutely mixed into the 

 butter, that on which it rests will have a yellow or 

 brownish color, while the rest will be of a white 

 color, which, in dairy language is termed "pyety 

 butter," that brings an inferior price. But although 

 the butter has to be kneaded among, and the salt 

 well mixed into it, care must be taken not to bake 

 or knead it too much, otherwise it will become 

 tough and gluey. — Quor. Journal. 



THINGS A PARMER^SHOUI.D NOT DO. 



A farmer should never undertake to cultivate 

 more land than he can do thoroughly; half tilled 

 land is growing poorer — well tilled land is con- 

 stantly improving. 



A fanner should never keep more cattle, 

 horses, sheep, or hogs, than he can keep in good 

 order : an animal in high order the first of De- 

 cember, is already half wintered. 



A farmer should never depend on his neigh- 

 bor for what he can by care and good manage- 

 ment, produce on his own farm ; he should 

 never beg fruit while he can plant trees, or bor- 



