46 GERMANY 



maize ; while desiccated potatoes are now exten- 

 sively used as an article of diet in the German 

 Army and Navy. But chemistry long since 

 showed that there were other uses, besides those 

 of direct food supplies, to which the potato could 

 be put. Most people are aware that alcohol is 

 distilled from potatoes, but it may be less gener- 

 ally known that in Germany there is a great 

 industry in the production from potatoes of a 

 spirit used for driving motors and engines, for 

 lighting, both in the public streets and in private 

 houses, for heating, and also for cooking. In the 

 course of a single year a total of 2,000,000 tons 

 of potatoes, valued at £2,500,000, will be used 

 for distilling purposes alone, the residues consti- 

 tuting a valuable food for cattle. For potato 

 starch another 2,000,000 tons a year will be 

 used, and of this starch the United Kingdom 

 imported in 1901 close on 24,000 tons. Other 

 products of the potato are starch syrup, starch 

 sugar, dextrin, and potato flour. Germany's 

 total export of potato flour and starch in 1901 

 amounted to 46,000 tons, nearly double the 

 quantity for the previous year, and her export 

 of dextrin was 14,000 tons. 



One gets here some concrete and very practi- 

 cal examples of the help that scientific teaching 

 may render to agriculture by promoting, among 



