POTATOE. 55 
over them the same kind of sauce which is used for 
salads, and mixing anchovies with them. 
These roots afford an excellent food for horses and 
cattle ; and it is said that bullocks will fatten on them 
more speedily than on cabbages or turnips. Potatoes 
are likewise serviceable for the fattening of hogs ; but, 
for a little while before these are killed, it is requisite 
to use barley meal in addition, as otherwise the fat of 
the bacon is liable to boil away in the cooking. In the 
use of potatoes as food, it is requisite to prepare them 
in some manner by heat, as otherwise they are both 
unpalatable and poisonous. 
A kind of brandy was formerly distilled from pota- 
toes ; but this has been forbidden by the legislature. 
Starch may be made from potatoes, by the simple pro- 
cess of scraping them in water, and well washing the 
pulp : the starch settles to the bottom of the vessel, in 
a heavy and closely connected sediment. This starch 
is of use for the same purposes as starch prepared from 
wheat: it is also valuable as a size ; which, unlike the 
size produced from animal substances, does not easily 
putrefy, and has no disagreeable smell. Bakers in 
Germany, by the addition of calcined oyster shells and 
burnt hartshorn, convert the pulp of potatoes into 
yeast. The stalks or haulm of potatoes are capable of 
being made into paper. They are also of considerable 
utility as manure. The apples, or seed-vessels, may be 
usefully employed as a pickle : and, if properly pre- 
pared, they are said to be even more palatable than 
cucumbers. 
There are numerous varieties of the potatoe. Of 
these the most remarkable are the different kinds of 
kidney potatoes, the Aylesbury white, and Aliringham 
early white, which are chiefly grown for the table ; the 
ox noble, lri*h purple, and red potatoes, which are 
adapted for fodder. 
This valuable root was originally imported from 
America, about the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. The inhabitants of Ireland assert that it was first 
