282 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
asaasffi 
Sept, 
comes tapioca, by a partial transformation into gum, 
and perhaps a small portion of sugar, all three of these 
substances being substantially the same in their compo¬ 
sition. The starch from the sago palm undergoes a 
similar change, when it becomes the sago of com¬ 
merce.* 
The starch of commerce is obtained by mixing 
coarsely ground wheat in vats with water, where it re¬ 
mains two or more weeks, the starch settling to the 
bottom undissolved, and the supernatant liquor under¬ 
going a slight fermentation, which separates some im¬ 
purities. The sour liquor is then drawn off, and the 
precipitated starch washed in sieves, through which the 
starch in an an impure state, passes with the water. It 
is again washed, drained through boxes lined with 
linen or canvass, and afterwards stove-dried in paper, 
during which it cracks into prisms as usually seen. 
From the protection afforded by the outer coating of 
the starch globules, this substance is but slightly affect¬ 
ed in potatoes injured by the rot; hence the success 
which has attended the abstraction of potato-flour from 
partially diseased tubers. 
Wheat, rye, and barley flour, consist of from one- 
half to two-thirds starch; Indian meal from three- 
quarters to four fifths; rice flour, more than five-sixths; 
oatmeal over three-quarters; buckwheat about one-half; 
and pea and bean meal not quite half. Potatoes are 
about three-quarters water; about three-fifths of the 
rest is starch. 
SUCCESSFUL GARDENING—PRODUCE OF ONE ACRE. 
The capability of our soil is but partially understood. 
With skilful management, it may be made to yield great 
burthens and profitable returns, where good markets are 
available. A few days since, a person (I am not allow¬ 
ed to give his name for fear his landlord will raise his 
rent!) gave me the following as the produce of one 
acre of land within one mile of the capital, in 1845. 
The soil is a tenacious clay, and has been cultivated as a 
garden for many years, but never considered remarkable 
for its fertility. 
It must be remembered that prices ranged high last 
year, which will account for the great amount received 
for the articles, viz., in round numbers: 
100 bushels potatoes, sold at.4s. $50 00 
32 do corn in the ear,. 3s. 12 00 
65 do onions, . 4s. 32 50 
13 do carrots, . 3s. 4 87 
8 do parsneps, .. 4s. 4 00 
7 do beets,. 3s. 2 62 
800 cabbages,. 3c. 24 00 
Horse radish, sold for. 42 00 
Fruit, do . 10 00 
Pigs fed on refuse of garden, .. 26 00 
$207 99 
No manure was applied except what was made by the 
pigs; but the great produce is ascribed to the use of 
oyster-shell lime, at an expense of one dollar and fifty 
cents per year for three years. “ It was wonderful,’’ 
he says, “ to see how the ground would heave and swell 
after every rain.” 
Lime, for agricultural purposes in this section, has 
not been very extensively used. Judge Buel tried some 
experiments with the Helderberg stone lime, but could 
never perceive any beneficial results from its application, 
and therefore abandoned its use. Probably if he had 
tried it in a clay soil, the results would have been dif¬ 
ferent. 
In Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, lime has 
been pretty extensively used, and the lands have been 
nearly quadrupled in value in consequence. Inadverti¬ 
* By a process not dissimilar, the starch of grains is converted 
Into sugar by the saccharine fermentation in malting, and in ger¬ 
mination ; and starch is also converted into a brown substance, at 
a temperature of about 300 degrees, known as starch-gum, or 
British gum, which is used as a substitute for gum arabic by 
calico printers in .thickening their colors. 
sing a farm for sale, as a recommendation, the amount 
of lime recently applied is particularly set forth, as well 
as the proximity of limestone. 
It is not generally known, I believe, that a kiln for 
burning oyster-shell lime has been erected within a few 
years in the south part of the city by Mr. Warner and 
Sons, where it is afforded at six cents per bushel. 
I am informed by the proprietors that their sales have 
increased very considerably for the past year, and their 
future prospect is quite flattering. Many of our farmers 
have been experimenting with lime, and appear well 
pleased with its operation. Several thousand bushels 
have been taken down the river to enrich the soil, and 
it is hoped that those who have tried it, w r hether suc¬ 
cessful or unsuccessful, will communicate the results 
through the medium of the Cultivator, for the benefit 
of others. 
There is one fact, that has been communicated to me, 
which is entirely new, in regard to the action of lime, 
and that is, its effects are greatest in a lime soil or lime 
region. Can our chemists account for this ? 
C. N. Bement. 
BemenVs Amer. Hotel , Albany , Avg. 1846. 
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. 
To the Editor of the Cultivator: 
Dear Sir —It appears to me that your correspondent 
J. L. H. has greatly over estimated, not only the extent 
of the error to which he refers in the agricultural sta¬ 
tistics prepared by me, and published in your June num¬ 
ber, and more fully in the volume of Transactions of the 
Society for 1845, but also the practical consequences of 
whatever errors there may be in that statement. The 
items furnished by me were taken from the official re¬ 
turns of the marshals on file in the Secretary of State’s 
office: and in respect to the crops to which he refers, as 
well as that of wheat, no one, it seems to me, could 
well have failed to understand that the quantity harvest¬ 
ed or the produce as returned had reference to the year 
preceding, and the number of acres under each particu¬ 
lar crop to the present year; consequently, that in strik¬ 
ing an average, it was upon the assumption, which I 
apprehend will generally hold true, that taking the 
whole county together, for a series of years, the propor¬ 
tions between the number of acres under each crop enu¬ 
merated, and the quantity raised as there set forth, 
would not be found essentially to vary. If I am correct 
in this assumption, it appears to me that the approxima¬ 
tion to accuracy, for all substantial purposes, is at least 
as great as it would have been, had it been practicable 
to obtain the average harvest of the crop actually put 
in. Be this as it may, I took the returns as I found 
them, and as they were directed to be made, not by the 
Secretary of State, as is erroneously and somewhat dis¬ 
courteously charged by your correspondent, but by the 
Legislature; and the averages given were a mere mat¬ 
ter of mathematical calculation, which, if inapplicable 
or inaccurate, could be readily rejected. This portion 
of the bill, too, was drawn up by a practical farmer of 
Western New-York, who must have supposed the re¬ 
sults to be secured under the arrangement given, of more 
value for reference than they would be under a different 
and more obvious classification. And certainly it must 
be obvious to “ J. L. H.,” as well as to every reflecting 
mind, that had the respective marshals, instead of being 
governed by the plain and perspicuous directions of the 
law under which they were acting, adopted the sugges¬ 
tions, however “profound” of every individual who felt 
qualified to offer his advice or “ remonstrances” in the 
premises, these statistics -would have been far more 
“worthless,” than they are. Whatever may be their 
present defects, they are not of such a nature as serious¬ 
ly to mislead any who will give to them a careful and 
critical examination: whereas such a mixture of truth 
and error, as must have necessarily resulted from an ar¬ 
bitrary standard to be fixed upon by each marshal, un¬ 
der the “remonstrances” of friends or otherwise, would 
have been altogether intolerable. 
As to the “ dairying operations,” I admit less reliance 
