Proceedixgs of the Farmers' Club. 517 



■tlie definite conclusion that if the product should become a staple 

 article of consumption it must be in the form of flour or meal. 



Three experiments were made with the powdered desiccated mate- 

 rial with the following results : 



1. Used alone in the same manner as corn-starch or flour it 

 produced a pudding equal in every respect to a common bread 

 pudding. 



2. Mixed with just enough, and no more, of wheat flour to make 

 the particles of the powder stick together, fritters or "pan-cakes" 

 were made from it in no way inferior to those made wholly from 

 wheat, and much better in the desirable quality of " browning " well. 



3. Mingled, as in the case last mentioned, with a little wheat 

 flour, it was made into biscuits resembling Graham bread in color, 

 but having a sweeter taste and finer texture. The writer estimates 

 the quality of these biscuits as somevvdiat higher than that of ordinary 

 rye bread. 



Reasoning from these slight experiments, the writer does not hesi- 

 tate to say that the dried sweet potato, properly prepared, is capable 

 of being used to a very great extent as a substitute for ordinarj^ flour, 

 and thus becoming the foundation of a new and important branch of 

 productive industry, and of proving a boon to that large proportion 

 of our fellow beings who, above all things, pray to see the price of 

 food reduced. The invention or discovery, whichever it may be called, 

 is yet, however, only in the germ, and before any such results can be 

 realized, the processes involved in the preparation of the desiccated 

 tubers must be improved, and the methods of using the product for 

 various purposes in cooking and bread-making must be better and 

 more widely known than they are nov/. 



The essential thing in the preparation of the dried or desiccated 

 Bweet potato consists in the removal of its moisture in the quickest 

 way, with the least heat and at the lowest cost. The first step is to 

 remove the skin, which would otherwise not only constitute an impu- 

 rity in the product, but by confining the steam generated from the 

 moisture in the tuber, would retard its drying and impair its quality 

 when dried. There can be but little doubt that the potatoes could be 

 very rapidly peeled by mechanism designed for the purpose, much 

 as apples are pared. After being peeled, the tubers should be cut in 

 slices of uniform thickness, in order that they may all dry very nearly 

 alike ; and these slices should not be more than one-fourth of an inch 

 thick, so that the watery particles may be readily expelled by the heat. 



