THE POTATO AND ITS COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS. 101 



Potato-starch treacle, or grape-sugar, may be used with advantage in 

 the manufacture of beer and vinegar. The syrup is extensively employed 

 by the French confectioners. It is also used for adulterating cane-sugar, 

 and for the manufacture of spirituous liquors. The treacle is purified so as 

 to be free from any mixture of insalubrious substances. It is remarkable 

 for its brightness, sweetness, and durability ; and owing to these properties, 

 and the large quantity of viscous matter it contains, is eminently suited 

 for making beer, many German brewers actually using it. It is sold at 

 12s. to 15s. the centner or cwt. Ship-beer is brewed from this starch-sugar 

 without malt, and is proof against change of climate. It is sold at 1/. the 

 barrel. Owing to their being fermentable, potatoes are used along with 

 barley by the Scotch distillers. 



At the Loburg factory, in the district of Jerichow and Magdeburg, in 

 Saxony, where the various potato products are made, the cost price of each 

 some few years ago was as follows : 



Potato meal and starch, per cwt. ----- 14s. 



Potato-groats - - - - »- - - - 18s. 



Potato-gum, in pieces and ground ----- 30s. 



Grape-sugar, No. 1-------- 18s. 9& 



„ No. 2 - - 18s. 



Syrup — white and brown - - - - - 17s 3d. and 13s. 



AtNeuwied, potato-meal was sold at 12s. the 100 pounds. 



At Hoffmann's chemical works, Ingenheim, near Darmstadt, potato-starch 

 meal for sizeing cotton weft and calico, &c, has been manufactured these 

 twelve years paet ; and dextrine of two sorts — named gomelin and leiocomme 

 — to replace gum-senegal and gum-narabic, for finishing various woven goods, 

 and for stiffening woollen, cotton, and silk goods. 



A great deal of the so-called cognac imported into France is the pro- 

 duce of the potato. Throughout Germany, the same uses are common. 

 The consumption of potatoes for distillation in Prussia is about 7,000,000 

 bushels per annum. They are crushed to a complete pulp in machines, at 

 the rate of two tons an hour, for brandy-distilling. 



Stettin brandy, well known in commerce, is largely imported into 

 England, and re-shipped to Australia and other of our foreign pos- 

 sessions as the produce of the grape, and is placed on many a table of 

 England as the same ; while the fair ladies of our country perfume them- 

 selves with the spirit of potato, under the designation of Eau de Cologne, in 

 the cheap imitations of that perfume which are sold. 



The cultivation of the potato in Poland appears of late years to have 

 increased six-fold. The harvest in 1857 amounted to 8| millions of quarters, 

 of which If millions of quarters (besides 214,723 quarters of grain) were 

 used in the distillation of spirits, yielding upwards of 12 millions of 

 gallons, or nearly 2| gallons for each head of the popidation. The distillation 

 of potato-spirits is much encouraged in general by the large landed proprie- 

 tors, who thus obtain a home-market for the produce of their estates with- 

 out the expense and risk of transport. In Saxony there are 600 distilleries, 



