BULLETIN OF THE 



I 



No. 47. 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wm. A. Taylor, Chief 

 November 25, 1913 



LESSONS FOR AMERICAN POTATO GROWERS 

 FROM GERMAN EXPERIENCES. 



By W. A. Orton, Pathologist in Charge of Cotton and Truck Disease and Sugar- 

 Plant Investigations, Bureau of PVant Industry. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In seeking the improvement of our agriculture we may advan- 

 tageously take notice of the progress made by other countries and 

 the methods that have resulted in their success, to the end that by a 

 comparison and study of the relative conditions here we may gain 

 a wider viewpoint and new ideas. 



Those working for the betterment of our potato industry can find 

 no country that will more richly reward study than Germany, where 

 potato culture and the utilization of this crop have attained a high 

 development. 



RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE POTATO IN GERMAN AND AMERICAN 



AGRICULTURE. 



The potato in Germany takes a more important place than with 

 us. Though the country is much smaller than the United States, the 

 area planted is 8,165,000 acres, as compared with 3,566,000 acres in 

 the United States. 1 The average total yield is 1,653,403,000 bushels, 

 or 202.5 bushels per acre, as compared with our average of 343,587,000 

 bushels, 1 or 96.2 bushels per acre. If the States of Maine, New York, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota alone were to plant 12.5 per 

 cent of their arable land in potatoes, as Germany does, and secure an 

 equivalent yield, the product would amount to 1,558,944,000 bushels, 

 4^ times our present production from the entire country. At the 

 present rate of consumption of potatoes in the United States, which 

 is considerably less than 3 bushels per capita, the needs of the entire 

 country could be supplied from any one of the States of New York, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, or Minnesota and leave a surplus unused, 

 whereas all the States combined have several times failed to produce 



1 Five-year average, 1908 to 1912. 



14572°— 13 



