29 



PREPARATION OF ALCOHOL FROM POTATOES 

 IN GERMANY. 



The Board have received through the Foreign Office the 

 following particulars, prepared by Dr. Rose, H.M. Consul 

 at Stuttgart, concerning the manufacture of alcohol from 

 potatoes : — 



Alcohol from potatoes was manufactured in Germany during 

 the eighteenth century, but it was only during the nineteenth 

 that the industry attained any importance for agriculture. 

 Its progress has been latterly most rapid, and it was greatly 

 accelerated by the intensive cultivation of potatoes, which has 

 been brought about by the spread of scientific agricultural 

 instruction. 



The foundations of this agricultural instruction were laid by 

 Liebig. In his "Chemical Letters," issued in 1859, he showed 

 that soils are comparatively poor in salts of potassium and how 

 much is taken from them by cultivation ; for example, a crop 

 of one acre of potatoes takes 90 lb. of potassium salts from the 

 soil. He showed further how insufficient the manures then 

 used (wood-ash, beet, and wool refuse) were to replace this 

 loss, and advocated the application of mineral manures. The 

 result of his investigations was the commencement of the 

 working of the Stassfurt and Anhalt salt strata. 



The following figures show the increase in the productivity 

 of the soil of the German Empire as regards potatoes : The 

 average yield was, in 1879-88, 32*8 cwt. per acre ; in 1888-96, 

 36*2 cwt. ; and in 1899, 49'8 cwt. 



During the eighteenth century alcohol was principally 

 derived from grain, and the centres of its preparation were 

 fairly evenly distributed throughout Germany. During the 

 nineteenth century it was almost exclusively prepared from 



