2768 



POTATO 



POTATO 



diet of unhealthy and unnutritious food at 600,000. 

 By 1848 the plague had virtually disappeared. 



The roots of the potato are distinct from the tubers. 

 Usually, two to four roots start from the stalk at the 

 base of each underground stem which, when enlarged 

 at the end, forms the potato. (See Fig. 3152.) Roots may 

 also start where underground stems are wanting. The 

 potato is a perennial plant. The accumulated starch 

 in the tubers furnishes an abundant supply of nourish- 

 ment for the plants growing from the eyes or buds until 

 they are well above the ground. So much food is stored 

 that not infrequently small young tubers are formed on 

 the outside of the potatoes left in the cellar during the 

 summer. Potatoes grow from 2 to even 3 feet high, 

 have smooth, herbaceous stems, irregularly pinnate 

 leaves, and wheel-shaped flowers, varying in breadth 

 from 1 to \]/z inches and in color from bluish white to 



3153. Potato, to show the difference in the progeny or yield of 

 two tubers. One tuber cut into four pieces yielded the product 

 from four hills shown in the left-hand column; another tuber 

 similarly cut and planted, yielded the four hills shown in the right- 

 hand column. 



purple. They bear a globular purplish or yellowish 

 fruit or seed-ball of the size of a gooseberry, containing 

 many small seeds. As many as 297 seeds have been 

 found in a single seed-ball. 



The cultivated potato of today has undergone a 

 remarkable change since its first introduction into 

 Europe by the Spaniards. Some of this change has been 

 brought about by better cultivation, but most of it is 

 due to breeding. The tubers of the wild S. tuberoswn 

 were small and attracted little attention. Heriot, in 

 his report on Virginia, describes the plant "with roots as 

 large as a walnut and others much larger; they grow in 

 damp soil, many hanging together as if tied on ropes." 

 The modern potato has been bred so that the hills 

 contain four to six tubers of uniform size, weighing, 

 perhaps, two pounds. (See Fig. 3153.) 



The uses of the potato are wide and varied, but taking 

 the world over, its greatest value is as a food-crop. It is 

 probably eaten by a greater proportion of the earth's 

 inhabitants than any other crop except rice. It is 

 extensively used for the manufacture of starch. The 

 great potato-growing sections of the United States, 

 especially Aroostook County, Maine, have many starch 

 factories, where the tubers which are oversize or under- 

 size or otherwise not fitted for ordinary food purposes 

 are converted into starch. The price ordinarily paid 

 for potatoes for starch-making is considerably less than 

 that for eating, and unless the price for eating gets 



very low, good marketable tubers are not used for 

 starch. The potato has many other uses which have 

 been much less developed in the United States than in 

 Europe, but there is a rapidly increasing tendency for 

 their uses in the arts here. It is used in the textile 

 industries, in the manufacture of woolen, linen, and 

 silk goods; for the manufacture of potato flour, glucose, 

 syrup, candy, desiccated potatoes for food, industrial 

 alcohol, mucilage, dyes, stock-feed, and so forth. 



The dry matter of potatoes is composed largely of 

 starch. A high starchy content is desirable because it 

 makes a mealy potato which is demanded in America. 

 Being deficient in nitrogen, the potato is ill adapted 

 for an exclusive diet and should be used in connection 

 with food containing a high percentage of proteids, 

 such as lean meat, peas, beans, and eggs. The lack of 

 vegetable fats may be supplied by butter, gravy, or 

 oatmeal. The composition of the potato varies widely. 

 An average of 136 analyses is as follows: 



Water Ash Protein Starch Fat 



Per Per Per Per Per 



cent cent cent cent cent 



Potatoes 78. 1. 2.2 18. .1 



Oatmeal 7.9 2. 14.7 67.4 7.1 



Graham flour 13.1 1.8 11,7 69.8 1.7 



The nutritive ratio of wheat is 1 to 5.37, almost per- 

 fect; that of potatoes 1 to 18.29, much too wide. Many 

 foods in their natural state, as potatoes, are more or 

 less deficient in mineral matter. Notable among these 

 are rice and wheat flour the former containing but 

 0.4 per cent and the latter 0.5 per cent of ash. 



The main potato industry in the United States is 

 confined to several potato-growing sections in widely 

 separated parts of the United States. The most impor- 

 tant of these are Aroostook County, Maine; the Nor- 

 folk and Eastern Shore trucking regions of Virginia 

 and Maryland; the Red River Valley of Minnesota 

 and North Dakota; the Kaw Valley of Kansas; the 

 Greely and Carbondale districts of Colorado; the Twin 

 Falls country of Idaho, and the San Joaquin and 

 Sacramento valleys of California. In these regions, 

 the climate and soil are perfect for the best potato- 

 production. 



Varieties. 



There are many hundred varieties of potatoes. The 

 older varieties run out in the course of time and are 

 supplanted by new ones. The running out is largely 

 due to the fact that growers, as a rule, do not practise 

 seed-selection. The new varieties are ordinarily pro- 

 duced either from hybridized seed or from bud-sports. 

 The latter are somewhat common. Red tubers are 

 now and then found in white hills, and vice versa. 

 Other differences are taken advantage of by breeders. 



Of the many varieties listed in seedsmen's catalogues 

 and found on the market, however, only a very few are 

 of commercial importance. Fitch, of the Iowa State 

 College, has made a thorough trial for a number of 

 years of all varieties of commercial importance in the 

 Unites States and Europe. He also made a canvass in 

 person and by letter of the markets of the United States. 

 The result was that only a few varieties were found to be 

 of much market value. He lists the following varieties 

 as being the most valuable in the United States in 

 order of their importance: Rural New Yorker, Green 

 Mountain, Early Ohio, Burbank, Irish Cobbler, Bliss 

 Triumph, Peerless (Pearl). Many other varieties, of 

 course, have local importance and perhaps outyield 

 the standard varieties named above. 



New varieties are being produced constantly, a very 

 few of which may prove to be better than the standard 

 sorts, but most of them are worthless. 



William Stuart, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, has recently made a very comprehensive 

 and admirably arranged classification of potatoes, 88 

 follows: 



