The Story-Book of the Fields 



To separate the starch from the potato, it 

 is only necessary to tear open the cells and 

 to set the grains free. The potato is reduced 

 to pulp with a grater. The pulp is placed on 

 a cloth over a large glass, and sprinkled with 

 water. The grains are carried through the 

 fabric by the water, while the remains of the 

 cells, which are not fine enough to pass, are 

 left behind. 



Now we shall have a glass of water, with a 

 number of satiny white points falling like 

 snow and collecting at the bottom. When 

 the deposit is complete and the water is 

 thrown away, a powdery, splendid, white 

 substance remains, which cracks in the fingers 

 like fine sand, and which is the starch of the 

 potato. The grains that compose it are so 

 fine that it would take from one hundred and 

 fifty to two hundred of them to equal the size 

 of a pin's head. But these tiny grains are 

 very complicated ; for each of them is com- 

 posed of a great number of leaflets fitted one 

 over the other. If we boil the starch in a 

 little water, the leaflets will open out and 

 separate, and the whole wall turn into a sticky 

 jelly, exceeding in volume by far the starch 

 that has been used. 



102 



