My favourite thing about today'f article* if the way that being really really old fafhioned all of the 's' characterf are written af 'f' characterf. It greatly amufef me to read it all in an old fafhioned lifp. If there a word for fomeone who if prejudiced againft the paft? Paftift?
Unfortunately today'f article if another one of thofe that needf to be tranfcribed, methinkf. It ftartf (that'f a good one) out alright but rapidly deterioratef. But, yef, a point to anyone elfe who takef the time to read it from the image. It'f not at all tediouf.... I promife! And 100 pointf to anyone who findf the microfilm copy at the Nationl Library and readf that inftead.
Here followf the tranfcription - I told you it waf a long one:
Extract
From the Reports of the Society
for Bettering the Condition,
and Increasing the Comforts
of the Poor.
A Letter,
Suggesting a Mode of Preserving
Potatoes.
(By Langford Millington, Esq)
In compliance with your request, expressed
at the meeting of the Society for bettering
the Condition of the Poor, I herewith send
you my simple but effectual mode of pre-
serving Potatoes without fire, sweet and good,
for a great length of time.
I have, as yet, only tried it upon small
quanitities of potatoes in my own family; and
I had intended deferring the publication of
any account of it, until I had ascertained, by
an apparatius I have ordered to be made, the
expence and effects of the operation on a great
scale. But your request, and the peculiar
circumstances of the present season, added to
the existing apprehension that the last year's
crop of potatoes is not calculated for keen-
ing, induce me to give some accounts of the
experiments I have already made; and to
express my hope that country gentlemen and
farmers may be persuaded to try, whether,
on a bad day, they cannot advantageously
employ their poor neighbours, in this mode
of preserving from decay, so materian an ar-
ticle of food.
The first of the two processes which I have
adopted is as follows. I took three pounds
and a half of potatoes, and had them peeled
and rasped, and put them in a coarse cloth
between two clean boards in a napkin press,
and pressed them into a dry cake, hardly so
thick as a very thin cheese. I then placed
the cake on a shelf, as I should an oil cake, to
dry. There was about a quart of juice ex-
pressed from the potatoes. To this I added
the same quantity of cold water; and in
about an hour it deposited rather more than
sixty grains of very white starch, or flour, fit
to make fine pastry.
The cake which I produced at the meet-
ing of the society, and which you observed to
be perfectly sweet, was prepared in the pre-
ceding manner, so long ago as the year 1797.
In size it occupied a sixth of the compass of
the potatoes. In weight it lost about two-
thirds by the process, but upon being drest,
either by steam or otherwise, the cake will
produce very nearly the same weight and
quantity of food, as three pounds and a half
of potatoes, properly dressed for table, would
do. I should observe, that I hav e lately pre-
pared in this way some potatoes that were
quite frozen, and that the cake is now per-
fectly sweet. Some of the same potatoes that
were left, and not pressed, were rotton and
spoiled in a few days.
The other mode of preparation is what I
very lately tried in you presence. I took
five pounds of potatoes, and without peeling
them, had them well cleaned, and pounded
in a mortar; and put them into a small wine
press, and pressed them into a thin cake;
completing the process as before. The cake
produced in this way appears to be sweet and
wholesome; but has not that clean white
which the other cakes have; nor has there
been sufficient time to ascertain, whether it
will keep as well as that made of the peeled
potatoes.
I have conceived that the first and most
material thing, is to ascertain the mode of
preparation, and its effects in preserving the
vegetable. Processes for abridging labour
are so speedily invented and completed in
England, that there can be little apprehen-
sion, but the mere mechanical process will
very soon be made perfect, and adapted to
general use. Upon the invention itself, I
trust it will not be too much to say, that if
its benefit was confined to supplying the
Navy of Great Britain, in every station of
the globe, with abundance of this wholesome
and nutritive vegetable, it would be an ob-
ject of no small moment; but when it is con-
sidered, that it may the means of saving,
in an abundant season, for a time of scarcity,
and of preserving for years, an article of food
so importanct, and so subject to decay; that
the potatoe so prepared may be packed in
one-sixth its former space, and supply not
only our navy, but our manufacturers, and
our soldiers at home and abroad; and that
it may afford acceptable employment, within
doors, for the poor, during the severest part
of the winter, it will appear to be deserving
of great attention.
With regard to the process, I have to ob-
serve, that tho'the peeling of the Potatoes is
not absolutely necessary, yet it greatly im-
proves the cake; and that the clearing them
from all discoloured and frost-bitten specks
appears to be necessary. I have used the
mode of rasping or pounding them; but,
upon a large scale, grinding them would pro-
bably be an easier operation; unless the in-
strument applied in the West Indies for rasp-
ing Cassada breadshould be made use of,
which is cheap and simple, and likely to an-
swer the purpose. With a very powerful
machine, I conceive that the cakes might be
made at once, by merely pressing the potatoes,
without any previous preparation. As to
the means of pressing them, a common cyder
press might be use; or a cheese press, with
the advntage of a level to increase the
power.
For those of you curiouf about the Caffada bread, apparently Caffada is the fame afs Manioc - there's a maffive article about it in, you gueffed it, Trove: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1276303
Alfo, thank you to Max who pointed out that my previouf poft waf indeed talking about the Edwardian era. For thofe of you who miffed out on Funday'f corker, The Man-Woman can be found right here!
*The article with the very long name - fine, I'll write it again:
Extract From the Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition, and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor. A Letter, Suggesting a Mode of Preserving Potatoes.
was published in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser on the first of May, 1803, and can be found in good ol' Trove: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article625541
Our lovely lady-friend this week is actually a costume design by Will Barnes; it is part of a collection titled Costume designs for Alfred Hill's Tapu, performed by J.C. Williamson in 1904. The collection of fifty two beauties can be found at http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an3703095, and this particular lady - our good friend Miss Potato Scraper - is hiding at the following address: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an3703095-37
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