1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
worth saving and returning to the soil as a fertili¬ 
zer. When heated up to 400°, starch changes to a 
gum which is often substituted in the arts for gum 
Arabic, and when treated with diluted sulphuric 
acid, it is changed to a 
species of sugar known 
as grape sugar, which, 
when fermented and 
distilled, produces al¬ 
coholic spirits. Thus 
the starch of potatoes 
becomes itself a ma¬ 
terial for the produc¬ 
tion of other valuable 
substances, all of which 
go to add to the eco¬ 
nomic value of a very 
important agricultural 
product. A century ago 
the potato was known 
only to botanists and to 
a few gardeners as a 
curiosity, and hut two 
varieties were grown. 
The above sketches 
were made up at the 
Fig. 6.— the stirrer. factory of Messrs. G. & 
F. Wooster, of Marsh¬ 
field, Vt., which has a capacity of working up 
1,000 bushels of potatoes weekly. One bushel of 
potatoes produces 6 to 8 lbs. of starch, the actual 
yield in the factory not being equal to that made 
in the laboratory. At 6 cents a pound for starch, 
potatoes will yield to the grower 25 cents a 
bushel, and a fair profit to the manufacturer. 
----- 
Study your Markets. 
It is true that many of the towns remote from 
market in New England are on the wane, and some 
of them half deserted. There is more wood and 
timber on them than there was fifty years ago, 
which is some compensation for their desertion. 
Farms can be bought now from ten to thirty dol¬ 
lars an acre, which is much less than they were 
worth before the buildings and fences were put up. 
It is hard times in these towns. It is difficult to 
sustain churches and schools. Town taxes are 
about what they were when the grand list -was 
double what it now is, and the population a third 
greater. It is hard to collect taxes without the aid 
of the sheriff. Mechanics have moved out for 
want of support. The boys do not go to college, 
and professional men have no successors. The 
cause of this decadence lies in the farmers, and not 
in the farms. Instead of studying their own mar¬ 
kets and raising what they could sell at a profit, 
they kept right on raising grain and pork, as if they 
had never heard of the great corn-growing States, 
where ten cents pays for a bushel, and twenty cents 
gives a handsome profit, and pork is sold at four 
Fig. 8.—THE Tm.T- 7. 
and five dollars a hundred. Competition with the 
West is folly in this era of cheap transportation. 
Com raised in Kansan is sold in these towns at six¬ 
ty to seventy cents a bushel, paying a profit to pro¬ 
ducer, middleman, and railroad. But we are by no 
means shut up to the production of the few crops 
which the prairies can produce cheaper than ive 
can. They cannot compete with us in the produc¬ 
tion of milk for our city and village markets. So 
long as the dwellers in our large towns have to pay 
eight to twelve cents a quart for their milk, there 
is a large margin for profit. Poultry and eggs pay 
well on these farms, or would, if the men had en¬ 
terprise enough to invest in the stock. Turkeys 
have just what they want, plenty of range in wood 
and pasture. Water- 
fowl have running 
brooks and ponds, and 
low wet lands. Hens 
find theirparadise about 
old bams and sheds, 
and brash pastures. 
Choice butter pays ex¬ 
tra prices in all our 
Eastern towns, and the 
market is practically 
unlimited for the gilt- 
edged article. The West 
cannot supply our East¬ 
ern markets with fresh 
lamb, mutton, veal, 
farmer does not own his land, except in very rare 
instances, and is obliged not only to pay a yearly 
rental of $20 to $25 per acre for a fairly good farm, 
but to keep the hardly worked land in good condi¬ 
tion, is forced to employ a working capital of at 
early chickens, and roasting pigs. The rauge of ar¬ 
ticles needed in our home markets that would pay 
handsomely is wide enough to employ all the capi- 
Eig. 9.— GROUND PLAN OF KILN. 
least $50 an acre, to be expended in artificial ferti¬ 
lizers, and purchased foods with which to make 
manure. In addition, he is prohibited by law from 
killing wild animals, such 
as rabbits, hares, foxes, 
partridges, and sometimes 
pigeons, while his eats 
and dogs are killed by his 
landlord’s gamekeeper, 
lest they might injure the 
game. This game feeds 
upon the farmer’s crops, 
and he must submit to see 
his fields sometimes rav¬ 
aged by them. The farmer 
is forbidden to raise such 
crops as he may wish, but 
is obliged to raise such 
as his landlord considers 
best for the land. He 
is forbidden to sell hay, 
straw, roots,or other erqps 
which are usually fed 
to stock, these being con¬ 
sumed on the farm. He is 
hound to all these re- 
Fig. 7.— vats in which the starch settles. quirementsby an exacting 
tal and labor of these waning towns, and much lease, which makes him a species of serf to his 
more. There are exceptional cases of skill and landlord, and when his lease expires he may be 
thrift in almost all these towns, and it is these men ousted from his farm without receiving one penny 
that study the 
markets, that pre¬ 
vent these towns 
from becoming a 
wilderness. One 
sees an unlimit¬ 
ed demand for 
roadsters and car¬ 
riage horses, and 
makes these a 
specialty. We 
know of one who 
has made thor¬ 
oughbred Devons 
a leading business 
for twenty years. 
It pays. Many 
thrive by poul¬ 
try, aud market 
from four to eight 
hundred dollars 
worth every year. 
It is not a very 
difficult thing to 
find out what will 
pay. If a man 
will do this, and 
put his money 
and brains into it, 
he will succeed, 
and make the wilderness blossom again. We must 
take the papers and study the markets. Conn’t. 
Fig. 10. —THE FURNACE. 
Farming in England.— The American farmer 
in reality occupies a very comfortable position as 
compared with an English farmer. An English 
of compensation for any permanent improvements, 
such as drains, buildings, fences, or fertilizers, that 
he may have made. To crown all, the instrument 
by which he is bound hand and foot in this manner 
is made at his expense by a lawyer. In a recently 
reported case, the lawyer charged $140 for drawing 
the lease, $28 only of which fell to the landlord’s 
