MISCEIvLANEOUS NEWS 



age of any one branch of production, and also, as in the case of the 

 society above mentioned, benefits the whole social economy of a country. 



The potato is one of the most important products of German agri- 

 culture. The eastern provinces, from their light soil, are particularly 

 adapted for the cultivation of this tuber. But the production is increasing 

 in excess of the quantity'' consumed, being, in the last decade, on an average, 

 5^0,000,000 quintals per year, and in 1913 exceeding that amount. 

 The average quantity per inhabitant was 5.75 quintals per year for 1888-92, 

 and rose to 7.25 qviintals in 1902-7 and to beyond 8.25 quintals in 1913. 

 As potatoes cannot be long kept in good condition, scarcely even until the 

 next crop, it follows that the farmers cannot profit much from their 

 abundant crops ; and thus regularly in autumn, they offer them at low 

 prices, fearing loss in holding them over, and then in summer there are 

 not enough potatoes as food for cattle. 



The new society, founded on 20th. February, at the plenary meet- 

 ing of the "Association of Spirit Manufacturers in Germany" {Verein 

 der Spiritusjabrikanten in Deutscliland), wished to change this state of 

 things by promoting the artificial preservation of a part of the crop, and 

 its use as food for fattening livestock. As the consumption of potatoes 

 as human food, and in the manufacture of spirit and starch, cannot 

 increase to a sufficient degree, this seems the only method of escaping 

 from the danger of over-production and may also lead to a more 

 abundant cultivation of the plant. The new methods of- preservation 

 already adopted on a large scale, which the society expects to improve 

 as well as render less expensive, provide the technical means for attaining 

 this end. In Germany there are about 440 estabHshments for the des- 

 siccation of potatoes, which produce about 1,500,000 quintals of des- 

 siccated potatoes (equal to 6,000,000 quintals of fresh potatoes) but, 

 by means of the complete utilisation of the machinery in winter, three 

 times that quantity might be obtained. 



The object of the Society is of great importance from the point of view 

 of general social economics ; it is tending gradually to control the entire 

 market for potatoes and the manufactured produce, and to regulate the 

 prices ; the preservation and better utilization of potatoes must bring about 

 a balance of the various crops and an increase in the production of meat. 

 Besides all this, the society intends to do its utmost to reduce the cost of 

 sowing and harvesting, and to increase the average quantity produced per ha. 



The chief difiiculty of the society is the uncertainty whether the 

 majority of the potato-growers can be induced to join its ranks. The 

 enterprise will be facilitated by the fact that over-production exists chiefly 

 in the east of Prussia, especially where great estates abourd. In the pro- 

 vinces of that part (that of Saxony included) there are about 18,000 holdings 

 of more than 100 hectares each, which produce a total of about 

 150,000,000 quintals of potatoes. Also the medium sized and small pro- 

 perties are much interested in the subject, and the way for their union in 

 the society has been prepared by the wide development of co-operative 

 institutions. 



