230 Collections and Recollections. 
public roads for the improvement of the potatoe pround, and the industrious 
dame, with her stouter children, keeps the ground clean, and assists to get in 
the potatoe harvest, the chief support of the family about nine months in the 
year." A pig might be added, to eat up the ofFal, which, when fat, would add 
to the general plenty 
Many instances have occurred of great success in raising potatoes on waste 
land, but the shortest way is, first to pare and burn. Two day-labourers gave 
a guinea for an acre of waste land to piant with potatoes; they pared and burnt 
it by moonlight after their daily labour, spread the ashes, and paia for plough- 
ing them in ; the crop proved so good, and the price of potatoes so high, that 
they shared £40 between them, besides reserving plenty of potatoes for their 
families. 
A peat-bog on waste land was drained, then pared and burnt; the ashes im- 
mediately regularly spread, and the lanii ploughed in twelve furrow ridge, 
(it could not be ploughed in narrow ones from toughness;) the furrows were 
hacked and levelled with heavy hoes, then planted across the ridges with po- 
tatoes in rows, and owing to the large quantity of ashes, produced an abundant 
crop. The land afterwards produced, the two next years, two very strong 
crops of oats in succession : it was then well limed, and clean fallowed, and is 
now a good meadow. — 1/jitI. 
Ill,— COLLECTIOXB AXD RECOLLECTIONS. 
RURAL AFFAIRS. 
COFFEB. — -Persons desirous of ascertaining whether Coffee is pure, or whether 
Succory has been mixed with it, will find the following an infallible test: — Let a 
small glass vessel be filled vyith cold water, and a pinch of the coffee thrown into 
it. If the water remain transparent, and he not in the slightest degree discolour- 
ed, the coffee is pure ; but should the liquid become tinged with red, and red 
particles fall to the bottom, as in tliecase of sugar, when being dissolved in water, 
it is a sure proof that the coffee has been adulterated with succory, — Journnl des 
i'ounaissances Vsuelles. — This notice may be of considerable use in detecting and 
defeating the practice now becoming very prevalent, of adulterating coffee with 
succory. It has been clearly ascertained that succory contains no nutritious pro- 
perties that should make it a substitute for cofl'ee, although it is true that a small 
tea-spoon full of succor} , if added to an ounce oF coffee, will improve the flavour, 
and render the liquid clearer, and of a brighter colour. 
McsHBoeMS. — To ascertain whether what appear to be Mushrooms, are so or 
not, a little salt should be sprinkled on the inner or spongy part. If in a short 
lime afterwards, they turn yellow, they are u poisonous kind of fungus; but 
if black, they may be considered genuine 3Iushroou)s. They should never be 
eaten without this test, as the best judges may be occasionally deceived. 
Feeding Swine. — Those who wish that these animals should have a sharp appe- 
tite, whilst they are fattening, must give them a couple of handfuls of dried oats 
once a day ; taking care to have a supply for some days forward, constantly on 
hand. For this purpose a layer of oats must he placed in a pan ; salt must then be 
strewed over it, and the whole moistened with a tittle water; taking care, how- 
ever, not to fill the pun to the brim, as llie moisture will swell tiie grain. 
