COMMUNICATIONS

FROM

Mr WILLIAM POPE at Gartymore, near Helmsdale,

County of Sutherland.

1. On the Farina of Potatoes; and the means of preserving them.

31st July 1822.

THE Farina of the Potato, commonly called Potato-starch, is readily obtained by previously washing the potato and grating it fine, and then washing the grated substance in pure water. The farina will precipitate very rapidly, and the skins and other impurities will remain suspended in the water. This water is to be carefully decanted off, and three or more washings in the same manner will be found sufficient to purify the farina effectually. It is then to be dried upon clean canvas sheets or hair-cloth, in the sun and air, with attention; and when perfectly dry it will keep for any length of time. This farina, put up in tin canisters, it is humbly conceived, would prove a most valuable article in long voyages, particularly as it would furnish a very desirable nutritive article, perhaps

not inferior to arrow-root powder, prepared as sago is dressed, with a little sugar and a glass of white wine. Let a small portion of this farina (say two ounces), be put upon a plate in a well aired room, and upon another plate put two ounces of fine wheaten flour, and, at the distance of forty-eight hours, let both articles be carefully weighed again. The potato-farina will be found of nearly the same weight as when it was laid down, but the wheaten flour will be found considerably heavier, particularly if the weather is moist. From this experiment, it is very evident that the wheaten flour absorbs moisture from the air of the atmosphere, more readily than the potato-farina. By this simple discovery, it is humbly conceived that the potato farina possesses extraordinary antiputrescent properties. For distant voyages, in particular, this valuable root may be prepared in another manner, to furnish desirable articles of food for the healthy as well as for convalescents.

Let the potato be fully boiled, skinned, and then bruised to small pieces, and dried upon hair-cloth on common malt-kilns, till it gets quite dry and hard; it will keep sweet a very long time put up in good flour barrels. This preparation of the potato, after being pounded in an iron-mortar, will make an excellent mess of soup, and will likewise make a very palatable plumb-pudding, or a plain pudding, with the addition of a little lemon or lime juice, or even good vinegar, and a little sugar.

Lastly, in December or January, in soft weather,

before the potato begins to sprout, let them be put in a large tub, and cover them with boiling water. As soon as the water begins to cool, let it be poured off, and the potatoes spread upon a boarded floor, until they are dry. Then put them up in casks, mixed with some fine sand, and they will keep perfectly sweet during spring and summer, without losing their substance by vegetating. The sand will contribute to save them from being injured by frost. W. P.

2. Preparation recommended for the Destruction of Vermin, and the Pickling of SeedWheat.

26th July 1822.

Hitherto it would appear that no effectual remedy has been discovered to check the destructive ravages of the grub and caterpillar vermin, which in orchards and kitchen gardens occasion so much loss to the industrious gardener.

The following preparation is humbly recommended as a valuable remedy to vanquish, if not entirely to exterminate, all the tribe of vermin that prove so injurious to the industry of those who cultivate the soil.

Take tobacco leaves, cut them small, and make a strong infusion of them in hot water poured up

on them in a large tub. The infusion must not be boiled, as that would carry off in steam a great part of the most valuable principle, the essential oil of the tobacco. When this infusion is cold, dissolve in it one or two pounds of common gum-arabic; when the gum-arabic is dissolved, a pound or more of flour of sulphur may be added, particularly if the infusion is intended to give a smart washing to wall fruit-trees.

It is humbly conceived that the month of January, if the weather is soft, is the best season for the application of this infusion to wall fruit-trees, and to all kinds of gooseberry and currant bushes, previously pruning all bushes, and weeding clean round the stems. Some days after the first washing with a watering-pot, or garden-engine, it would be beneficial to prepare a portion of the infusion with an additional quantity of the gum-arabic, to be applied with a brush to the stems of the bushes, at least for a foot or more above the ground. The air of the atmosphere will generally keep the gum moist; and any vermin that may rise from the earth, in the course of the spring, will be arrested by the gum, and the tobacco will kill them effectually. There is one species of grub that never quits the ground till he becomes a kind of butterfly. This species destroys cabbages and cauliflowers, by attacking the roots about an inch under the surface of the earth. It would therefore be proper, before these vegetables are hoed up, to give a small portion of the infusion to each plant from a

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tin tea-kettle. And it is further recommended, when these plants are taken up to be transplanted, that their roots should be put in the infusion for a few minutes before they are dibbled into the earth. It is wonderful how much this infusion promotes the vigour of vegetation, where it gets to the roots of any plant.

Vipers, which are common in gardens in England, and the south of Scotland, will soon forsake gardens in which the said infusion is used freely; and the essential oil of tobacco, if applied to the mouth of a viper, upon the tip of a small rod, till it bites at the rod, will kill the reptile to a certainty. This oil will kill the most poisonous snakes of warm climates.

The tobacco-leaf yields a considerable quantity of essential oil, which is readily obtained by smoking tobacco in a tube nipple-glass. The oil will condense in the bulb of the nipple-glass; and it is so extremely caustic, that it will destroy the epidermis where it touches the human skin.

It is peculiarly gratifying to observe, that the said infusion with gum-arabic* and flour of sulphur will be found a most important article to the farmer in the pickling of wheat or barley seed; and it is not necessary that the grain should be in the liquor above half an hour. The grain should be put in the infusion in large tubs; and, when taken up, put in bags, and

The principal use of the gum-arabic is to carry the flour of sulphur into the soil attached to the seed.