36 Uses of the Potatoe. 
mer objects to the constant use of potatoes for food, not 
because they are pernicious to the body, but because they 
hurt the faculties of the mind. He owns that those who eat 
maize, potatoes, or even millet, may grow tall and acquire a 
large size. It does not, however, by any means appear, that. 
the general use of potatoes has impaired either the health of 
body or vigor of mind of its inhabitants. 
The manufacture of potatoe flour is carried on, to a consid- 
erable extent, in the neighborhood of Paris, and the flour is 
sold at a price considerably higher than that of wheat, for the 
use of confectioners, and of bakers who supply the finer kinds 
of bread. The potatoes are washed and grated, and the 
starch separated from the pulp so attained by filtration ; it is 
dried on shelves, in a room heated by a flue, and afterwards 
broken on a floor, by passing a cast iron roller over it. It is 
then passed into a bolting machine and put into sacks for 
sale. Itis reported by Count de Chatrol, in his statistical 
account of Paris, that forty thousand tons of potatoes are an- 
nually manufactured into flour within a circle of eight leagues 
around the city. , 
The quantity of farina which potatocs produce varies not 
only accordmg to the species, but according to the period 
when the extraction takes place. The variations produced 
by this last cause are nearly as follows: — 
Two hundred and forty pounds of potatoes, produced of 
farina, or potatoe flour, in 
August, from 28 to 25 pounds. 
Sept, “ 82% 88 «& 
October, “ 82“ 40 « 
Noy., “ 388 “45 « 
March, “ 45 “88 « 
Apri, © 38“ 98 « 
May, “« 98 «& 9) 6é 
The extraction of the farina should be discontinued at the 
