USES OF THE HORSE-CHESTNUT. 
4S7 
Starch.35-42 
Flour fibre .......... 19 - 78 
Albumen.17-19 
Bitter extract.11-45 
Oil.1-21 
Gum. 1354 
Total.98-57 
Pabet estimates that 100 lb. of dried horse-chestnuts are equal in nutritive value 
to 1501b. of average hay. Another authority, Petri, makes them equal, weight for 
weight, to oatmeal. 
The starch obtained from the horse-chestnut is white, and when thoroughly washed 
perfectly free from any bitterness. They yield 29 to 30 per cent., and sometimes 
nearly 35 per cent., and contain besides a glutinous matter, which, according to 
Liebig, possesses eminently nutritive properties, but, which experience proves, very 
inferior to the gluten of cereals. Adopting the analysis of M. Chevallier and M. Le- 
frage, 17 per cent, may be taken as the mean yield of starch with operations con¬ 
ducted on a large scale ; and therefore, in its starch produce, the horse-chestnut may 
be taken to be equivalent to the potato, which root contains about 25 per cent, in the 
solid state, but after deducting the pulp rarely yields more than 18 per cent, of 
starch. 
M. Mercandier, in the ‘Journal Economique’ for December, 1757, stated that 
horse-chestnuts furnish a soapy water, proper for bleaching linen. The same observer 
remarks, that the pulp or residue of the starch furnishes an excellent food for the 
poultry of the farm-yard, and which can be employed as a fuel. 
In 1780 M. Bon, President of the Boyal Society of Montpellier, published a process 
founded on the use of alkaline leys “ for softening horse-chestnuts and rendering them 
fit for fattening cattle in countries where acorns and pulse are not used for that pur¬ 
pose.” About the same period an abbot of Anchin, in French Flanders, discovered a 
means of extracting from horse-chestnuts a good oil for burning, and obtained from 
their flour a weaver’s starch, which was used subsequently by the weavers of Geneva. 
In 1783 the ‘ Bibliotheque Physico-Economique’ (p. 412) mentioned a means of 
thoroughly depriving the fruit of the horse-chestnut, by grafting and transplanting, 
of their natural bitterness, and thus obtaining from this tree chestnuts as sweet and 
palatable as those of Lyons. 
At the same time the ‘ Decade Philosophique,’ t. viii. p. 454, made known a process 
for removing, by simple washing in water, the bitterness and acidity of the flour of the 
horse-chestnut. 
We find also in the Dictionary of Agriculture of Abbe Bogier, t. vi. p. 442 (1785), 
that a M. du Francheville obtained from the horse-chestnut the farinaceous and nu¬ 
tritive part which the fruit contains, by applying the process used by the South 
Americans for making manioc or cassava. 
“ In August, 1794,” observes M. Chevallier, “ the Lyceum of Arts informed the 
National Convention that, among the means of supplying the place of flour for the 
manufacture of paste, the Lyceum had found in the horse-chestnut materials admi¬ 
rably fitted for making the best pasteboard.” 
In another memoir, the same Institution demonstrated that in burning the horse- 
chestnut potash could be obtained, and that 12% ounces of ashes yielded 9 ounces of 
fixed alkali (potash) of the first quality. 
In a publication issued in Silesia, Biblioth. Physico-ficonom., 1806, p. 150, it was 
showm that it is possible to obtain from the fruit of the horse-chestnut oil, flour or 
meal for paste, and a black colour resulting from the carbonization of the husk or 
envelope. These numerous citations are sufficient to prove that the idea of utilizing 
these fruits is by no means new. 
It is stated by those well-informed, that a horse-chestnut tree of twenty years old 
will yield a hectolitre of fruit, and an adult tree three hectolitres; but this estimate 
is necessarily subject to variations according to local and climative circumstances. In 
France there are a large number of these trees, and in Belgium and other European 
countries it is quite possible to extend them wdiere land is not valuable, or more pro¬ 
fitably occupied. 
