Evaporating Sweet Potatoes 151 



they furnish cheap and nutritious food not only for man, 

 but for all classes of domestic animals, is not questioned. 

 As a market crop they have thus far fallen far short 

 of success. Why is thisf First, they are too bulky to 

 bear transportation, even to our own large cities; sec- 

 ond, they are too perishable to bear rough handling and 

 exposure to freezing weather. The problem, therefore, 

 which we undertook to solve was to reduce the bulk and 

 weight, by drying off surplus moisture, to so sterilize 

 the product as to exempt them from the fungous diseases 

 to which the green product is subject, and to accomplish 

 these ends without impairing the edible qualities of the 

 desiccated product. 



THE FIRST EFFORT ONLY A PARTIAL SUCCESS 



In 1899, the roots were peeled and sliced and dried in 

 a movable evaporator. This resulted in removing the ex- 

 cess of moisture, and, consequently, reducing the weight 

 to one -fourth that of the green roots, and rendering the 

 product non-perishable, but this was accompanied by 

 a practical destruction of the flavor. The surplus mois- 

 ture was removed, but the reabsorption of the moisture 

 was not satisfactory, and, hence, when cooked, they did 

 not resemble in consistency or flavor the fresh potato. 



Since these results were obtained the Chemical De- 

 partment of Clemson College has successfully manufac- 

 tured a quantity of starch of superior quality from sweet 

 potatoes. These investigations are to be continued, with 

 the expectation of placing this new industry on a com- 

 mercial basis. 



