Book VI. 



THE POTATO. 



85:3 



5358. A large circular pan is now procured, and set upon the fire. The farina is gradually put into the 

 pan, till what is conceived to be sufficient for one cooking be supplied. As the natural tendency of the 

 farina, in a warm state, is to adhere to the pan, great care is requisite in constantly turning and stirring 

 it. This is effectually done with a broad flat piece of wood, having a long handle to prevent inconvenience 

 from the heat. A temperature of 150 Fahrenheit suits best for perfecting the tapioca. When the farina 

 becomes quite hard, dry, and gritty, it is then ready, and may be taken off the fire. {Quar. Journ. Asr. 

 vol. ii. p. 68.) 



5359. The ordinary economical applications of the potato, next to those of the culinary and baking arts, 

 are in starch-making and the distillery. Starch is readily made from the scraped and washed tubers cut 

 into small pieces and steeped in water ; and a spirit is distilled from mashed potatoes, fermented so as to 

 change a portion of the starch into sugar. In general it is found that three and a half bushels of potatoes 

 afford the same quantity of spirit as one of malt. 



5360. Potash may be extracted from potato leaves and stalks by the following process : Cut off the 

 stalks when the flowers begin to fall, as that is the period of their greatest vigour ; leave them on tlie 

 ground eight or ten days to dry, cart them to a hole dug in the earth about five feet square and two feet 

 deep, and then burn them, keeping the ashes red-hot as long as possible. Afterwards take out the ashes, 

 pour boiling water on them, and tlien evaporate the water. " There remains after the evaporation a dry 

 saline reddish substance, known in commerce under the name of salin ; the more the ashes are boiled, the 

 greyer, and the more valuable the salin becomes. The salin must be calcined in a very hot oven, until 

 the whole mass presents a uniform reddish brown. In cooling it remains dry, and in fragments bluish 

 within, and white on the surface; in which state it takes the name of potash." {Smith's Mechanic, 

 vol. ii. p. 381.) 



5361. Among extraordinary applications of the potato, may be mentioned cleaning 

 woollens, and making wine and ardent spirit. 



5362. Cleaning woollens. The refuse of potatoes used in making starch when taken from the sieve, 

 possesses the property of cleansing woollen cloths, without hurting their colour; and the water decanted 

 from the starch powder is excellent for cleansing silks, without the smallest injury to the colour. 



5St>3. Wine, of a good quality, may be made from frosted potatoes, if not so much frosted as to have 

 become soft and watery. The i)otatocs must be crushed or bruised with a mallet, or put into a cider 

 press. A bushel must have ten gallons of water, prepared by boiling it, mixed with half a pound of hops 

 and half a pound of common white ginger. This water, after having boiled for about half an hour, must 

 be poured upon the bruised potatoes, into a tub or vessel suited to the quantity to be made. After stand- 

 ing in this mixed state for three days, yest must be added to ferment the liquor. When the fermentation 

 has subsided, the liquor must be drawn off, as fine as possible, into a cask, adding half a pound of raw 

 sugar for every gallon. After it has remained in the cask for three months, it will be ready for use. 



5SGi Ardent spirit. Potatoes that have been injured by the frost produce a much greater quantity of 

 spirit, and of a much finer quality, than those that are fresh; they require a proportion of malt- wash to 

 promote the fermentation. About one fourth part of malt-worts, or wash, ought to be fermented at least 

 six hours before the potato- wash is joined to it ; otherwise the potato. wash, having an aptitude to ferment 

 will be ripe for the still before the malt-wash is ready; hence the effect will be, to generate an acid which 

 renders the spirit coarse, and, when diluted with water, of a milky or bluish colour. When the spirit is 

 strong, the acid is held in solution ; but appears as above, when diluted with water, {Farmer''& Mas 

 vol. xvii. p. 325.) ^' 



5365. In the application of potatoes as food for live stock, they are often joined with hay, 

 straw, chaft', and other similar matters, and have been found useful in many cases, espe- 

 cially in the later winter months, as food for horses, cows, and other sorts of live stock. 

 With these substances, and in combination with others, as bean or barley-meal and pol- 

 lard, they are used in the fattening of neat cattle, sheep, and hogs. 



5366. Potatoes are much more nutritive when boiled ; they were formerly cooked in this way, but are 

 now very generally steamed, especially in the north. The practice has been carried to the greatest extent 

 by Curwen in feeding horses. He gives to each horse, daily, a stone and a half of potatoes mixed with a 

 tenth of cut straw. One hundred and twenty stones of potatoes require two and a quarter bushels of 

 coals to steam them. An acre of potatoes, he considers, goes as far in this way as four of hay. Von Thaer 

 found them, when given to live stock, produce more manure than any other food : 100 lbs. of potatoes 

 producing 66 lbs. of manure of the very best description. The baking of potatoes in an oven has also been 

 tried with success. {Comm. Board of Agriculture, vol. iv.); but the process seems too expensive. Pota- 

 toes should not be given raw to animals of any description, except, perhaps, when hogs are let in to root 

 and pick up what may have escaped notice in the field. Washing was formerly a disagreeable and tedious 

 business, but is now rendered an easy matter, whether on a large or small scale, by the use of the washing 

 machine. 



5367. Machines for washing potatoes are numerous, and in addition to that already described, we shall 

 here notice two other forms. One of the simplest is a trough {Jig. 750. a, b) containing a hollow cylinder 



750 (c) with a handle (rf), which is made fast to 



the axis which passes through the cylinder. 

 " A number of the spars (which run longi. 

 tudinally) are so constructed as to form a 

 kind of door, which is made fast by two 

 rmch-pins at each end of the cylinder. The 

 vessel being charged with potatoes, and the 

 trough filled with water, all that is necessary 

 for the purpose of cleaning is only to turn 

 the handle of the machine." A machine for 

 washing potatoes by Mr. John Lawson, of 

 Elgin, consists of a wooden or iron trough, 

 with a movable bottom above the fixed one, 

 composed of spars three quarters of an inch 

 apart. The potatoes are l^id over the mov- 

 able ribbed bottom, ^nd water being admitted 

 at one end by a cock, they are are moved 

 backwards and forwards by a wooden hoe, till 

 they are clean, when the dirty water which 

 has collected between the two bottoms is let 

 off by another cock at the opposite end. {Brit. Farm. Mag. vol. ii.) 



5368. The boiling of potatoes, though a simple operation, is in many districts not performed in the best 

 manner. The following is the Lancashire method : Set them on the fire in cold water ; when boiled, 

 pour off the water completely, add a little salt, and dry them well on the fire. Another method : Choose 

 your potatoes of equal size, and put them into a saucepan, or pot without a lid, with no more water than 

 is sufficient to cover them ; more would only spoil them, as the potatoes themselves, on being boiled, yield 

 a considerable portion of water. By being boiled in a vessel without a Ud, they do not crack, and all waste 



;5 I 3 



