Reports of Boards of Navy Officers, Convened By Order of the Hon. William A. Graham, Secretary of the Navy... to Examine Certain Dessicated Alimentary Vegetable Substances...

Washington DC: C. Alexander, 1852.. may18. ix, 72 pp.

This is a fascinating report, as the Navy tries to figure out if dehydrated peas, beans, carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc. would be useful. The experiments were based on processes developed in Europe. They found "Edwards' 'Preserved Potato' as positively bad... Of Masson's vegetables we found the cabbage, carrots and green peas, of good quality... Gannal's vegetables... proved good in our hands... Lewis' 'Preserved Potato' we found good, though not so beautiful a preparation as that of Gannal." Contrary to the reports, trials at sea of Edwards' potatoes were successful. However, I don't believe dehydrated foods were widely used in the military until WW II. Worn half calf over marbled boards. Text clean and fresh, with some contemporary manuscript notes.