506 



THE POTATO 



"Seventy-four per cent, of the potato crop is 

 used for food and seed and the remainder suppUes 

 the raw material for manufacturing purposes. 

 Three fourths of the manufacturing is done in 

 the province of Groningen, and the remainder is 

 confined to three other provinces. Of the 48,815 

 acres of potatoes in Groningen, over 37,000 were 

 planted for industrial purposes. 



*'The scientific fertilization of the soil has be- 

 come a very important feature of the potato in- 

 dustry in Groningen. Sometimes $32 to $50 

 worth of fertilizer is scattered on one hectare 

 (2.471 acres) of ground. The land is valued at 

 fully $500 per acre and rents at $22.50 per acre 

 per year. The fertilizers consist of about 200 

 kilos of Chile saltpetre and 700 kilos of super- 

 phosphates to the hectare. Potatoes raised on this 

 highly fertilized soil are not very edible, being 

 cultivated principally for their industrial prop- 

 erties. There is a sentiment in favor of using 

 the factory waste for fertilizing, but it has not 

 proved a success as yet. 



**The methods of planting, cultivating, and 

 harvesting potatoes have not advanced as they 

 should. Several picking machines have been 

 tried of late, but not to the satisfaction of the 

 planters. They want a machine that will not 

 only dig the potatoes out of the ground, but clean 

 off the dirt and empty them into a sack as well. A 

 potato digger that merely uproots the potatoes, 

 leaving them scattered over the ground to be 

 picked up and sacked by hand, saves little labor, 

 as they still have to be cleaned, sacked, and often 

 shaken loose from the roots and vines. 



"In the cooperative potato producing and manu- 

 facturing enterprises the packing is usually let to 



