CHAPTER V 



CLIMATE, SOILS AND ROTATION 



By Daniel Dean 



The climate of most parts of the United States is not 

 well suited to the production of the potato. The heat of 

 summer is too great and the water supply in the soil and 

 in rainfall during the growing season is too small. It is 

 not known what are the possibilities of the potato in the 

 mountain regions of South America from which it was 

 brought by white men in the sixteenth century, but it is 

 certain that up to the present time growers of north- 

 western Europe have often secured higher yields to the 

 acre than those of the United States. One great reason 

 for this fact is the difference in climate. The most famous 

 potato-growing regions of Europe are several degrees 

 north of any part of the United States, except Alaska. 

 The average summer heat of northern Germany is esti- 

 mated by the United States Department of Agriculture at 

 nearly ten degrees Fahrenheit lower than that of most of 

 the potato-growing sections of the United States. The 

 climate of the principal potato-growing regions of Europe 

 is so cool that Indian corn is not grown in them, while 

 there is heat enough for corn in most of the northern 

 United States and even for cotton in the South. Most 

 of northwestern Europe has very heavy rainfall because 

 of the Gulf Stream. The potato is grown in the United 



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