would be unintelligible in this place, in the absence of such samples.

The potatoe-flour used in the bread and biscuit is made of the whole of the potatoe, washed, steamed, bruised slightly after steaming, dried on a malt-kiln, and ground in a common corn-mill, no alteration whatever having been made in the set of the stones, from what they were as used for grinding wheat; it may reasonably be supposed, however, that a miller, accustomed to grind this article, would make better work and finer flour.

Nothing was taken from the flour except some large pieces that were not ground, and a little large bran in the proportion of the samples sent herewith.

The potatoes of which this flour was made, were certainly were certainly overdried; and having lain in an heap after steaming upwards of two days before they were put upon the kiln, some degree of fermentation had begun to take place, but which was thought so little as to have been perfectly connected by the drying. In the bread, however, it is certainly distinguishable. The baker considers that it is from this cause that the bread is not so light as it otherwise would have been. It rose well in the oven, but fell when the door was opened. He thinks, that when mixed with the flour of dry wheat, the potatoe meal will have exactly the same effect as the mixture of a certain portion of cone-wheat flour, and that it will answer as well in about the same proportion. He has no doubt but that even with this flour he shall succeed better in the second attempt. With potatoe-meal, well made, he believes that bread of the best quality may be produced.

The chief precautions necessary in making potatoe flour seem to be to prevent any fermentation taking place in the boiled potatoes previously to their being dried, and to avoid giving them too great a heat in drying. With this view it seems adviseable to construct the apparatus for preparing it, so as that the steaming-tubs and kiln should be heated by the same fire, without los of time or labour; the potatoes may then be immediately removed from the steam to the kiln; and means should be used to regulate the heat of the kiln, so that it should not much exceed 90°.

For the common purpose of bread, it seems evident, from the samples, that taking off the rind or skin is by no means necessary; to wash the potatoes carefully before boiling seems, therefore, the only precaution required.

From experiments as before stated, the produce of dry meal is to the raw potatoe, as 26 or 27 te to 100, but let it be estimated at 25, or one quarter of the whole. The greatest quantity of raw potatoes said to be used as a mixture with wheat flour in bread, is one-third; not much above the same quantity of boiled potatoes has usually been employed. The proportion of flour in boiled potatoe exceeds that in raw potatoe by about one quarter. As a rough ground for calculation, we may, therefore, call 33 per cent. as the proportion of flour in any given quantity of boiled potatoe

The proportion, therefore, which the potatoe meal makes of the whole mixture in this bread, abore that in which one-third raw potatoe has been used, is four times; that is, the actual quantity of potatoe

flour

flour in this bread is as great as if 24lb. of raw potatoe had been mixed with 12lbs of wheaten flour; and, compared with boiled potatoes, it is as great as if 18lb. of potatoes had been mixed with 12lb. of wheat flour.

From the foregoing statements, it is not presumed that much farther information is imparted, than may have been gathered from some former accounts of bread-making from a mixture of such flours, except as to the mode of preparing the potatoe flour. Neither is it at present supposed that for common use, when corn is not dear, the potatoe will supersede the use of neat wheat flour for family bread.

But in very dear times, when it may be used in some places to great advantage, the most economical mode of doing it is important; and the process of steaming, kiln-drying, grinding, and dressing, seems excellent. If equal quantities of wheat and potatoe flour are found to make very good bread, and the potatoe to have the effect of coneflour in the mixture; this may be set down as a sufficient regulation, and a valuable fact.

But what is of great consequence to be known, and fully noticed is, that the flour of the potatoes so prepared, if barrelled up, and kept in any common dry place, will retain its virtue longer, either on land or at sea, than the other sorts of flour made from grain; in short, from frequent appearances, and well-attested facts, the flour of this vegetable, prepared as aforesaid, seems to possess the singular qua. lity of being almost imperishable. In addition to that quality, the power of preserving potatoes in barrels, after being kiln-dried, either

when whole or cut into parts, for the use of the table in long voyages, is very important; and it is found that, after being so preserved, they' are capable of being again boiled soft, and served up as a vegetable at table, retaining much of their original flavour, consistence, and other qualities.

An Essay on Manures. By Arthur Young, Esq. Abridged from the Bath Papers, Vol. 10.

This essay obtained the reward of the first Bedfordean medal, which was voted by the Bath Agricultural Society to the author who produced "the best essay, founded on prac tical experience, on the nature and properties of manures, and the mode of preparing and applying them to various soils: in which essay shall be pointed out the cheapest manner of collecting and preparing the dif ferent kinds of manures, and the state, season, and quantity in which they should be applied " In this essay the author considers the subject of manures under the several heads of their nature, their properties, the mode of collecting them, the state in which they are applied, the manner of application, the season when applied, the quantity required, and on what soils the respective kinds are most beneficial. In classing the various bodies which may be applied as manures, he divides them into,

1. Such as are dry or made on a farm; and,

2. Such as are usually purchased. MARLE, of the manures of the first class, is the most common in England, in some one of the denominations of clay, stone, or shell 3Q3

marle ;

must be done when the teams have most leisure; it should, however, be suspended whenever the ground is much cut by the carting. The most advantageous quantity, though an object of extreme importance, has not been satisfactorily ascertained: it is better, however, to lay on too little than too much, as the application may be repeated in the former case; and the latter is sometimes productive of deteriora tion of the soil, and must be regulated in some manner according to what soil it be applied. On loose and saudy soils, the Norfolk farmers frequently apply from one hundred to one hundred and fifty cubical yards to an acre, and on soils of more firmness eighty, and even sixty yards have been found sufficient. If turnips produce deformed strings of root, or if the rush-rooted grasses prevail, the experienced farmer will pronounce the land to want marling; and upon wet, loose loams, which are found when manured with dung to be more productive of straw than corn, marle has generally been found an effectual remedy.

marle; it may be distinguished by various colours, but these are no otherwise material, than as indicative of iron. It is by nature a fossil substance, usually composed of sand, clay, and calcareous earth; it fails in pure water, as well as by expo. sition to the atmosphere. The property that renders this manure par ticularly valuable, is the calcareous earth it contains; and there is great reason to believe that the calcareous earth is the part taken up by vegetables. The common way of collecting marle is by digging: it may, however, be sometimes dredged up from the bottoms of rivers, particularly the Shannon. In searching for marle, therefore, these places ought not to be overlooked, but should be bored as well as other parts of a farm. This manure requires no preparation, and, as to the state in which it is applied, whatever benefit may result from exposition to the atmosphere, it must be attained after spreading; if, how ever, it be obtained from the bottom of lakes or rivers, the heaps should be left for six or twelve months. The application requires more extensive notice: the bulk of this manure renders the carriage so expensive, that every means should be used for lessening it. As marle should be very long exposed for the atmosphere to melt it down, and as the roots of the grass combine it with the surface of sweard land, whether applied to this or to arable, it should be applied in such a manner as to remain as long as possible undisturbed. The most experienced farmers are apprehensive of turning marle in too deep with the plough. This manure is usually applied on so large a scale as to preclude choice in the season; it

3

CHALK differs so very little from marle, as to make it necessary to point out only the variations: it naturally possesses more calcareou earth, and is comparatively harder, and consequently its properties are not very different; it is usually col lected by digging from pits, which, for the convenience of application should be opened at small distances; and it may be applied in all states, and at all seasons. The quantity required is smaller than that of marle, and the soils abounding with wild sorrel, have been found to be highly improved by it; and, indeed, it is used successfully on all soils, on which marle has been found to

answer;

answer; on moors, peat-bogs, and peat-fens, chalk is more beneficial than marle, as containing a larger proportion of calcareous earth.

LIME has furnished matter for volumes; but the best chance of obtaining the plain truth will be, to reject opinions and examine experiment alone. Of the exact nature of lime, there is some difference among chemists: it may be obtained from the burning of all hard calcareous substances whatever, as marble, limestone, chalk, spar, &c. The operation of fire expels from these substances certain portions of water and carbonic acids, leaving nearly pure calcareous carth. From this circumstance its properties are sufficiently apparent, and are the same as those of chalk and marle, as far as calcareous earth is con. cerned; it neutralizes acid salts, and consequently will act powerfully on all peat soils, but will not give the tenacity to sands, or the friability to clay, which chalk will effect: it is, when slacked, of such extraordinary divisibility, that it is capable of much more intimate combination with other substances, than either marle or chalk. It may be collected almost in every situation; for limestone exists in many dis. tricts unknown to the farmer: the common test of the stone is by pouring upon it a strong acid; yet this is not always practically correct. Calcination, or burning, is the preparation of lime, a process too common to need description. The state in which lime is applied is either fresh from the kiln while hot, or else after it is slacked; each method has its advocates: where putrefaction is the object of the application, it should be made as soon after it is burned as possible.

Summer is undoubtedly the best season for the application of lime; but it may be laid on at other periods. The quantity of this manure varies more, perhaps, than in any other : it has been used up to seven hundred bushels to an acre, but the im provement has not been always in proportion to the quantity; for much depends on the soil. Upon peat-bogs, and moors, and`mountains, experience speaks an uniform language: on these the benefit of applying lime is great and decided ; its caustic powers destroy the spontaneous productions of the soil, and convert them into a mucus, which the atmosphere turns into vegetable mould. All wastes are best reclaimed by lime. When Meriden Heath, in Warwickshire, was iuclosed, part was trebly folded, part well dressed with rotten dung, and part limed: oats were sown over the whole: the part folded produced scarcely any corn, and the seed not worth saving: the part dunged succeeded very little better, but that which was limed produced an excellent crop. It does worst of all on a cold hungry soil, and on strong deep clay extremely retentive of moisture, no perceptible good is produced by it.

LIMESTONE has been tried, and found excellent in ameliorating such soils as other calcareous manures operate upon successfully. The suffrages of Dr. Anderson and lord Kaims, are decidedly in its favour. When pulverized and reduced by breaking, it is not very dissimilar from lime which has been slacked: it is the best of all manures for im. proving a bog, its great weight giv ing the pressure so much wanted on peat-moss.

CLAY, LOAM, and SAND, are sub3Q4

stances

stances which have been all used as manures, upon the largest scale. Their effect depends on the deficiency of the soil. Clay is beneficial on sand, but sand not equally so on clay: what is called clay, is sometimes found on examination to be loam, and always improves a sandy soil. Sea-sand, from the quantity of shells it contains, partakes of the nature of marle.

BURNT CLAY, MARLE, and EARTH, are frequently applied as manure in every part of the United Kingdom. Their nature and properties will vary with the proportion of calcareous earth they contain, as that is converted by burning into lime.

PARING and BURNING are mechanical operations; and though nothing is directly added to the soil by them, yet the effects are frequently very beneficial. The nature of the ashes resulting from this operation, must necessarily vary according to the nature of the earth burned; but in all cases the operation reduces the roots of vegetables to coals and ashes, and thus prepares a stimulant and nutriment for plants. The effect of heat in this operation is visible wherever burning has been practised, by the spots where the fires were made assuming a deeper green than the rest of the field. The properties of the ashes may also vary with the soil, but they all operate as a very powerful manure: the practice of paring and burning has never been adopted without success. The common practice of collecting the turf, is to pare on some soils from two inches thick to half an inch on others; but an inch may be considered the average depth; and the chief attention required in burning, is to guard

against too great a calcination. A considerable variation of the state in which the ashes are applied exists in common practice; some farmers spread and plough them in immediately; others leave them for a considerable time in heaps exposed to the atmosphere. In the applica tion they should be kept as near the surface as possible, and care should be taken not to bury them very deep in the furrow; and as this work can only be done in dry wea ther, the scuson is necessarily li mited to the summer months. The quantity of this manure must depend on the depth of paring, and on mout soils it may be applied with success : experiments have confirmed the be neficial effects of paring and burning on clay, loam, sand, chalk, and peat.

YARD and STABLE DUNG is the principal manure employed by ninety-nine farmers out of a bun dred; but whether it should be accumulated in heaps till fermenta. tion and putrefaction. have brought it to a certain state, in which it is most ready and proper for applying to the land, or whether it should be carried to the land before that fermentation and putrefaction take place, has excited much dissertation and inquiry. The late Mr. Ducket conceived, that the more dunghil were stirred, the more their virtue was lost. Mr. Patterson, of Win. bledon, and Mr. Bocket, of Hert fordshire, are of the same opinion. Mr. Johnson, of Kingsthorpe, near Northampton, has for many years been in the practice of laying long dung, merely wetted by his cattle, on the land, and has found that the fresher it is used the better the ef fect. Mr. Robinson, near Salis bury, has been confirmed in this

practice