150 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
whole of the starch is converted into syrup. This is to be purified 
irom the acid by adding quick lime, with which the acid unites, and 
then evaporating the liquid. The sugar remains after evaporation, 
and is used for all domestic purposes. Its taste is that of delicious 
sweet, and as an article of diet is probably more healthful, and less 
oppressive to the stomach, than any other sweet substance in use. 
It is particularly useful in making sweatmeats, and may be used at 
table as honey. A bushel, or sixty pounds of potatoes, will give 
eight pounds starch, and eight or seven and a half pounds sugar. 
The article, which we here abridge, seems to have been copied from 
Silliman’s Journal, which may contain a more detailed account of 
the process. 
There are various other uses to which this valuable root is now 
converted, that our ancestors never dreamt of. From the potato 
may now be procured bread, starch, jelly, sugar, treacle, beer, bran¬ 
dy, cheese, butter, coffee, tapioca, dye-stuffs, size, cleansing liquids, 
and medicine. 
The Russians, (and we have seen a notice of the same having 
been done in Ohio) obtain from it treacle or molasses. The Swedes 
and English obtain from it brandy by distillation. Dr. Anderson ob¬ 
tained a gallon of spirits from seventy-two pounds, of a mild agreea¬ 
ble flavor. The Saxons make from it a kind of cheese, which retains 
its freshness for years if kept in a close vessel. It is prepared by 
boiling the potatoes, and reducing them, when cold, to a pulp, re¬ 
jecting the skins; sour milk is added, or else sweet curd, with the 
whey pressed out, in the proportion of a pint to five pounds of pulp. 
It is kneaded several times, drained in small baskets, and simply 
dried in the shade. A French chemist has converted the potato in¬ 
to a substance resembling, and he says superior to, coffee. He mix¬ 
es some best olive oil with a certain portion of dried potato-flour, 
and then adds a small portion of coffee powder. The Germans in¬ 
corporate it, after being steamed and reduced to a paste, with the 
butter to be spread over bread. Chemical ingenuity has likewise 
converted it into substitutes for arrow-root, chocolate, tapioca, and ver¬ 
micelli. The Danes have discovered in the flowers the material for 
a beautiful yellow dye, solid and durable, which by being afterwards 
plunged into a blue dye, becomes a perfect green. The potato is 
always used with excellent effect in steam boilers, for preventing the 
gathering of a calcareous incrustation on their bottoms. The liquor 
drawn off in the process of making potato starch, will clean silks, 
woollens or cottons, without damage to the texture or colour. The 
French administer it, roasted, and with success, medicinally, to their 
sailors, as a preventative of, and even cure for, the scurvy .—See 
Quarterly Jour, of Ag. 
AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 
The agriculture of Bavaria is said to have improved more rapidly, 
in the last half century, than that of any other country, Scotland, 
perhaps, excepted. Before the French revolution it was behind that 
of the other German States. The lands then mostly belonged to 
the religious establishments. The cultivators merely lived ; they did 
not thrive. When these lands were sold, they were made into 
small parcels, and almost every man became the proprietor of the 
portion he cultivated, upon a long credit. The great impulse to im¬ 
provement was given to the young generation, in the primary schools. 
In these were taught, both by books and examples, Agriculture 
and Gardening. For this purpose, catechisms of gardening, of 
agriculture, of domestic economy, of forest culture, of orchard cul¬ 
ture, &c. in small 12mo. volumes, with wood-cuts, were introduced 
as class books for boys, and the like on the management of silk 
worms, household economy and cookery, for the gills; and there 
was attached to every district school at least half an acre of land, 
for experimental gardening, where the scholars received recreation 
and instruction, in the hours of exemption from study, from the mas¬ 
ter, in the practice of gardening. And it was made an indispensa¬ 
ble qualification in teachers, to be competent to give this instruction. 
“ Since these schools have come into action,” says a late traveller, 
“ an entirely new generation of cultivators has arisen, and the con¬ 
sequence is, that agriculture in Bavaria is carried to a higher de¬ 
gree of perfection than it is any where else in the central states of 
Germany.” “The result of the whole of the information procured, 
and of the observations made, is, that we think the inhabitants of 
Bavaria promise soon to be, if they arc not already, the happiest 
people in Germany. The climate of the country will prevent its 
agriculture and gardening from advancing beyond a certain point, 
but to that point both will very 60 on be carried.” 
The salutary influence of agricultural and horticultural instruction, 
in common schools, has not been confined, in Bavaria, to the im¬ 
provement of the soil. As consequences which naturally follow the 
improvement of agriculture, the roads, bridges and other public 
works have undergone a corresponding improvement; individual 
comforts have been greatly multiplied, business of every kind has 
been improved, and human intellect, reanimated as it were, by the 
magic pen of a Hazzi, has burst its cerements, and become an effi¬ 
cient aid in the noble work of improvement. The public roads are 
all lined with ornamental fruit-bearing or forest trees—and furnish¬ 
ed with guide-boards, mile-stones, and seats, at intervals, of stones 
or sods, for the weary traveller. This novel sort of education, and 
the blessings which have flown from it, and the still greater bless¬ 
ings which appear in prospect, have resulted from the wise provi¬ 
sions of the government, aided, and efficiently aided, by the active 
and patriotic philanthropy, of M. Hazzi, the editor of an agricultural 
journal at Munich, and author of the school catechisms of which we 
have spoken. 
Nineteen out of every twenty of the children of our common 
schools, would be benefitted, while the twentieth would not be in¬ 
jured, by the elementary studies which have proved so beneficial to 
Bavaria. “ As the twig is bent so is the tree inclined." Early impres¬ 
sions have an influence through life; and it is all important that 
these early impressions should be of the right kind—such as are best 
calculated to advance the interests of the individual, and the good of 
the public. What can conduce more to these desirable ends than to 
instruct our youth in the elementary knowledge of the business 
which they are to follow through life, and upon their success in 
which must materially depend their respectability, their happiness 
and their worth to society. Husbandry is a business in which there 
is always something to learn, even in the longest term of life. The 
sooner "the study is began, the more proficiency will be made ; and 
the more one becomes acquainted with its varied sources of true en¬ 
joyment, the stronger is his attachment to its pursuits. 
Hoven in Cattle .—We find in Lawrence, a high authority, the fol¬ 
lowing prescriptions for this disease, which we copy on account of 
the safety and facility with which they may be tried, believing, with¬ 
out however knowing, that they may prove efficacious. The first is 
—an ounce of gun powder given to the beast in a pint of milk, or a 
less quantity of gin. The second—give an egg-shell full of tar. 
Rhubarb .—This is one of the many plants which a farmer may 
have in his garden, and which may be made to contribute to the de¬ 
licacies of his table, and to the health and comfort of his family, with 
very little expense or labor. The plant is perennial, and resembles 
much in its habits the burdock, though the leaves and their stalks 
may be somewhat larger, in a good soil. A dozen plants will serve to 
supply a family. The leaf stocks are the parts used. The skin or 
cuticle is pealed off—they are then cut into quarter or half inch 
pieces, and used without further preparation, with sugar and spices, 
like unripe gooseberries, for pies and tarts, which fruit it very much 
resembles in flavor. It may be used in the spring, and till midsum¬ 
mer. Medical men ascribe to it a salutary influence upon health, 
particularly to children, when used in this way. The seed ripens 
about midsummer, at which time it may be sown. 
Dried Fruits .—The general failure of fruit throughout the coun¬ 
try in the last year, induced us, as it did many others, to substitute, 
for family use, dried fruits of the preceding year. From the quanti¬ 
ty we found in the hands of a single retailer, we were led to form a 
new estimate of this proffered source of gain to the farmer. The 
gentlemen upon whom we called had about 600 bushels of dried ap¬ 
ples, 500 bushels of peaches, and a large quantity of dried damson 
plums. The prices were $2.50 for the apples, $4 for the peaches, 
and $8 for the plums, (freed from the pits,) and these prices, we un¬ 
derstand, subsequently advanced. He informed us that they mostly 
all came from Ohio. Here there was some five or six thousand dol¬ 
lars saved by the prudent industry, we presume, of our fair country 
women. We state these facts for the benefit of those who have 
been accustomed to overlook this source of farm profits. Dried fruits 
will always be in demand, not only for our cities and towns, but for 
exportation. 
To make Currant Jelly .—Take the juice of red currants one lb. 
sugar 6 oz. Boil down.- Strawberry Jelly .—Take of the juice of 
strawberries 4 lbs. sugar 2 lbs. Boil down. 
