96 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



"Yes, my boy; in a medium-sized potato they 

 could be counted by millions and millions." 



"It must be rather a curious sight to look at a lit- 

 tle piece of potato through a powerful magnifying- 

 glass." 



"It is indeed one of the most curious sights, this 

 countless multitude of starch grains, all the same 

 shape, all white as snow, gathered together by tens, 

 dozens, scores, and even more, in their delicate little 

 box-like cells. 



"Let us perform an experiment not beyond our 

 means ; let us remove the starch from a potato. All 

 we need to do is to tear open the cells in order to 

 liberate the starch grains, and then filter them out. 

 Watch me do it. With a kitchen grater I reduce the 

 potato to pulp and thus tear the cells open. Now I 

 put the pulp on a piece of linen over a large glass 

 and pour a little water through it with one hand 

 while with the other I keep stirring the pulp. The 

 grains of starch from the ruptured cells are washed 

 away by the water and carried through the meshes 

 of the fabric, while the remnants of the cell-walls, 

 being too large to pass through, stay behind in the 

 filter. 



"Thus I obtain a glassful of turbid water. Look 

 at it under a bright sun. In the water a multitude 

 of white satiny specks are falling like so much snow 

 and piling up on the bottom. In a few moments the 

 deposit has settled. I then throw away the clear 

 water above it and have left a powdery substance, 

 magnificently white, which if pressed between the 



