No. 144.J 311 



The temperature necessary to dry the potatoes sufficiently, is 

 not less than twenty-two degrees Centigrade, (nearly seventy 

 degrees Fahrenheit.) He tried some potatoes in ovens,, where the 

 heat was 58 to 60 degrees Centigrade, about 136 degrees Fahren- 

 heit. He even in some eases scorched the skins, and jet the 

 germs were not injured; they produced vigorous plants. 



These facts were noticed in the London Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 and called out many correspondents, who claimed the same dis- 

 covery; but all of them mention a mere drying in open air. Mr. 

 Bollman, after all, is the only one who insists on the high artifi- 

 cial drying. He thinks that rap d drjing is far better than slow, 

 and that the drying should be so complete as to make the pulp 

 completely hard and the skin full of wiiukles, almost begmning to 

 roast the potato. After being thus prepared, the sooner they are 

 planted the better. 



Mr. Lindley says that potatoes when made very dry, not only 

 escape the rot, but grow with unusual vigor. To what may we 

 attribute this singular result 1 Probably, says Mr. Lindley, to 

 this circumstance : The insoluble starch of the potato is by a high 

 temperature converted into gum. 



Braun has discovered zinc in a species of violet peuse, in 

 Rhenish Prussia, in a region of zinc, (zinciferous.) 



London Farmer's Magazine, Sept. 1854. 



Potato rot severe in Ireland and England. — Paper — much inquiry 

 for substitutes for rags. 



From 1830 to 1834, average amount of paper made before the 

 reduction of the duty from threepence to one and one-halfpence 

 per pound, seventy millions pounds per annum. From 1849 to 

 1853, one hundred and seventy-seven millions. 



This increase of paper required more than sixteen thousand 

 tons additional of materials. If it was all from flax fibre, it would 

 take 64,000 acres of land to produce it, and our additional flax 

 spinners take 83,000 acres. Our flax spinners had 50,000 tons 

 per annum from Russia, of which they now get about half by cir- 

 cuitous channels, so that we suffer a deficiency of flax that would 

 take 100,000 acres to produce. 



