These roots afford an excellent food for horses and cattle; and it is said that bullocks will fatten on them more speedily than on cabbages or turnips. Potatoes are likewise serviceable for the fattening of hogs; but, for a little while before these are killed, it is requisite to use barley meal in addition, as otherwise the fat of the bacon is liable to boil away in the cooking. In the use of potatoes as food, it is requisite to prepare them in some manner by heat, as otherwise they are both unpalatable and poisonous. A kind of brandy was formerly distilled from potatoes; but this has been forbidden by the legislature. Starch may be made from potatoes, by the simple process of scraping them in water, and well washing the pulp: the starch settles to the bottom of the vessel, in a heavy and closely connected sediment. This starch is of use for the same purposes as starch prepared from wheat: it is also valuable as a size; which, unlike the size produced from animal substances, does not easily putrefy, and has no disagreeable smell. Bakers in Germany, by the addition of calcined oyster shells and burnt hartshorn, convert the pulp of potatoes into yeast. The _stalks_ or haulm of potatoes are capable of being made into paper. They are also of considerable utility as manure. The _apples_, or seed-vessels, may be usefully employed as a pickle: and, if properly prepared, they are said to be even more palatable than cucumbers. There are numerous varieties of the potatoe. Of these the most remarkable are the different kinds of _kidney potatoes_, the _Aylesbury white_, and _Altringham early white_, which are chiefly grown for the table; the _ox noble_, _Irish purple_, and _red potatoes_, which are adapted for fodder. This valuable root was originally imported from America, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. The inhabitants of Ireland assert that it was first introduced into that country, by the accidental wreck, upon their coast, of a vessel which was laden with potatoes and freighted for England. The usual mode of planting potatoes is by cutting the roots into pieces, reserving one eye or bud to each division, and setting these in the earth. They will succeed in any tolerable soil; but they flourish most luxuriantly in light sandy loams. The proper time for digging them up is during dry weather in autumn, when the leaves and stems begin to decay. When cultivated on a small scale, they are usually dug with a three pronged fork; but when raised in fields, where this process would be too tedious, they are turned up by a plough. 68. _CAPSICUMS are South American and Indian plants easily known by their hollow pods, of shining red or yellow colour, which contain many small, flat, and kidney-shaped seeds._ _The principal species are, Heart or Bell pepper_ (_Capsicum grossum_), _Guinea pepper_ (_Capsicum annuum_, Fig. 12), _and Bird pepper_ (_Capsicum baccatum_).