TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 167 



and good addition. And ihat tlie liay when pnt into tlie furnace 

 to boil slioidd be put into a net, or a basket with a lid to it, or 

 in a tni kettle and cover, tilled with large holes, and the potatoes, 

 (or carrots, &c.) should be steamed over the tea, while gently 

 boiling or sitnmering. This may easdy be done, by fitting to the 

 furnace, a vessel having a number of holes, of the size of a 

 common auger, bored through the bottom of it, so as to allow 

 the steam to pass through the potatoes, with which the vessel is 

 filled ; and having a little moist clay, or a wet flannel or cloth 

 put circularly round the bottom, where it rests on the mouth of 

 the furnace, so as to secure the steam from escaping. By this 

 mode of steaming the potatoes, a considerable saving will be 

 made in the article of coal. The potatoes should be but slightly 

 steamed or boiled, and not reduced to a pulp,* and whilst hot 

 should be trod or rammed in casks for future use. The hay, after 

 boiling, may be dried, and perhaps offered to store cattle : or else 

 thrown to the pigs as litter, or, to add to the dung heap. The 

 wash should be carefully given to the pigs in a lukewarm state, 

 and if meal, or pollard be added, it should be thrown into the 

 tub, or cooler, immediately after boiling the wash, and well mixed 

 together ; but steaming the meal, or pollard, and even the grains 

 might be a further improvement. The water where there is a 

 sufficent fall, may be led into the furnace without any trouble 

 whatever, by means of a leaden pipe ; or may be conveyed into 

 the furnace by a spout from the pump ; and the tea may be drawn 

 off, through a cock into a cooler, which should be placed by the 

 side of the furnace. To convey the wash to the pigs he used an 



* Tlie steaming operation would, no doubt, be much facilitated by previously slicing 

 the potatoes, by means of the potatoe cutters ; of which a few were lately received at tliis 

 place, from England. K. 



