POTATO GROWING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



S. C. DAMON, RHODE ISLAND STATE COLLEGE, KINGSTON, RHODE ISLAND. 



Introduction. 



Any one who is at all interested in the subject of potato 

 growing, whether it be for home use or for market, cannot help 

 being forcibly impressed with the importance of the industry 

 and the great need that exists of increasing the yield in Massa- 

 chusetts. A visit to the large potato-growing sections of the 

 State will help one to more adequately appreciate the extent 

 of the business and the importance of the crop from an agri- 

 cultural standpoint, and yet if one were to take a trip to the 

 potato yards of the railroads in all the large cities of the State, 

 where carloads, and at certain seasons of the year trainloads, 

 of potatoes are received daily, the fact would be more forcibly 

 impressed on his mind that the potato is one of the most 

 important articles of human food grown upon our farms to-day. 

 The further fact is also plainly evident that but a small part of 

 all the potatoes consumed in the State is grown within her 

 borders. 



There were grown in Massachusetts in 1914, according to the 

 United States Bureau of Crop Estimates, 27,000 acres of 

 potatoes, producing an average yield of 155 bushels per acre, 

 or a total of 4,185,000 bushels, which, at 71 cents per bushel, 

 would have a total value of $2,971,350. Assuming as a con- 

 servative estimate that the State has a population of 3,500,000, 

 and that the average annual consumption of potatoes is 3 

 bushels per capita, there are needed annually 10,500,000 

 bushels, or two and one-half times the quantity produced at 

 present. 



This situation shows that the needs of the State are large, 

 and that the supply for the market must be constant and 

 practically inexhaustible. This explains why potato growers 



