No. 151.] 497 



zers. Farmers ought to try experiments on the small scale first, then 

 go on the large plan, when all is certain of success. 



Mr, Sheafe — ■! have used stone lime on my farm as a top dressing 

 on meadow land, with beneficial results; but shell lime is much to be 

 preferred. I am now engaged in experiments with lime and muck in 

 combination. I have let the stone lime be air slacked in the fall, 

 then spread with the shovel over the land, about in the proportion in 

 which gypsum is commonly applied. My farm is on a limestone 

 basis. 



Diseased potatoes. 



Mr. Hancock presented the recent observations of Prof. Liebig, on 

 the method of preparing for keeping and for use^ diseased potatoes, 

 as follows: 



The researches I have undertaken upon the sound and diseased po- 

 tatoes of the present year, have disclosed to me the remarkable fact 

 that they contain in the sap, a considerable quantity of vegetable 

 casin (cheese) precipitable by acids. This constituent I did not ob- 

 serve in my previous researches. It thus appears that from the influ- 

 ence of the weather, or generally speaking, from atmospheric causes, 

 a part of the albumen which prevails in the potato, has become con- 

 verted into vegetable casin. The great instability of this latter sub- 

 stance is well known; hence the facility with which the potato con- 

 taining it undergoes putrefaction. Any injury to health from the use 

 of these potatoes, is out of the question; and nowhere in Germany, 

 has such an effect been observed. In the diseased potato, no solanin 

 can be discovered. It may be of some use to call attention to the 

 fact, that diseased potatoes may easily and at little expense, be pre- 

 served for a length of time, and afterw^ards employed in various ways, 

 by cutting them into slices of about a quarter of an inch, and im- 

 mersing them in water, contaming from 2 to 3 per cent of sulphuric 

 acid. After 23 or 36 hours the acid liquor may be drawn off, and 

 all remains of it washed away by steeping in successive portions of 

 fresh water. Treated in this manner, the potatoes are easily dried. 

 The pieces are white, and of little weight, and can be ground to flour, 

 and baked into bread along with the flour of wheat. I think it pro- 

 bable that the diseased potatoes, after being sliced and kept for some 

 time in contact with weak sulphuric acid, so as to be penetrated by 

 the acid, may be preserved in that state in pits. But further experi- 

 ments are necessary to determine this. It is certain, however, that 

 the dilute sulphuric acid stops the progress of putrefaction. 



[Assembly, No. 151.] 32 



