H2 SPECIAL VEGETABLE CROPS 



acre ; for this rose from 5-53 tons in 1894 to 6-29 tons 

 in 1904, the total production being 2,788,983 tons in 

 the former year and 3,588,254 in the latter. What 

 this difference in yield means can be calculated from 

 the fact that an addition of i ton per acre to the 

 potato crop of Great Britain alone is equal in value 

 to a sum of 2,000,000. Including Ireland, the estimated 

 yield per acre increased from 3*82 in 1894 to 5' 2 4 m 

 1904. 



These figures, again, refer to yield only. There is 

 also to be considered the question of a decrease in 

 disease, owing to the introduction of new varieties and 

 the adoption of improved methods of culture. Bearing 

 all these factors in mind, I have the authority of Mr. 

 A. Findlay, of 'El Dorado' fame whom I had the 

 pleasure of meeting on the new potato farm he has 

 set up at Haxey, Lincolnshire for the estimate that, 

 during the last twenty years the production of ' saleable ' 

 potatoes in this country has increased 50 per cent. 

 Mr. Findlay, I learned, was also of opinion that, with 

 the use of proper seed, potato disease might be extirpated 

 altogether; but this is a technical matter which I would 

 rather leave to the experts. 



Taking holdings above I acre in extent, the total 

 estimated value of the potato crop of the United 

 Kingdom in 1904 was no less than 20,000,000. 



Remarkable stories are told of the degree of success 

 attained by some of the individual growers concerned 

 in this great industry. Thus I have read in the Spalding 

 Free Press an interesting account of an interview with 

 Mr. William Dennis, of Kirton, Lincolnshire, who related 

 how he began life as a worker in the fields ; how he 

 remembered the time when there was only one grower 

 of potatoes in the district, and he had only 2 acres ; 

 how at the present time most of the land in the twenty 



