262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



corn crop for 1870 ran np to 1601,839,030, cotton to 

 1286,000,000, wheat to 1245,865,045, oats to $107,136,710 

 and potatoes to $82,668,590. Leaving out cotton, which is 

 not a northern product, it will be seen that potatoes rank 

 fourth among our cultivated products. Perhaps it is due to 

 the hay crop, very little of which is grown in the cotton dis- 

 tricts, to say that the money value of this crop exceeds that 

 of cotton by $52,969,680. But when we examine the re- 

 turns per acre, potatoes are ahead of corn, wheat, oats and 

 hay. If we may trust Gen. Walker's figures, the average 

 acreable value of potatoes in Maine for 1870 was $82.50, 

 while that of corn was $37.62. In Massachusetts corn yield- 

 ed an average return of $32.34, potatoes $84.48. In Con- 

 necticut corn yielded $30.09 per acre, potatoes $72.27, or 

 more than twice that of corn. The average number of bush- 

 els of corn per acre in Maine for 1870 was 33, of potatoes in 

 the same state 125. In Vermont, which is the banner state 

 of the Union for its acreable product of corn, and, with the 

 exception of California, the banner state also for potatoes, 

 the acreable product of the former is 39.6 bushels, and of the 

 latter, 140 bushels. Not to pursue these dry statistics fur- 

 ther, the conclusion is manifest that if a farmer wishes to re- 

 alize the most money from an acre of land with any of our 

 common crops, he must raise potatoes. 



The intrinsic as well as money value of potatoes is also 

 great. The analysis of this root shows that it contains about 

 as much dry solid matter as lean beef. The proportions of 

 nutritive matter varies, as is well known, in the different va- 

 rieties, but Johnston gives the following as the proximate anal- 

 ysis of the potato. 



Water, - - - - - 

 Starch, _ . - . 



Dextrine, _ _ _ - 



Sugar, ----- 



Albumen, . _ - . 



Fat, 



Fiber, 



100.00 



