LESSONS FOR AMERICAN" POTATO GROWERS. 6 



THE ROLE OF POTATOES IN THE NATIONAL DIETARY. 



The potato stands next to the cereals as the most important food 

 of northern nations. In Germany this is particularly true, for the 

 per capita consumption is 7.3 bushels, while ours is estimated at 2.6 

 bushels. An interesting study by Behrend 1 shows that the con- 

 sumption of potatoes in Germany stands in inverse ratio to the 

 wealth and social status of the people. The well-to-do people there 

 use 3.6 bushels each per annum, the peasantry 8.8 bushels, and the 

 laborers in western Germany 12.3 bushels, while in the eastern 

 Provinces the per capita consumption of the poorer laborers is 17 

 bushels each per year. 



The average wholesale price for table potatoes in Berlin, from 

 1908 to 1912, inclusive, was 30 cents per bushel; that in Chicago 

 during the same 5-year period was 56 cents per bushel. A compari- 

 son with the prices of wheat and corn will show that the American 

 people could often purchase a unit of food value more cheaply in 

 the form of cereals than as potatoes, but the inherited taste for this 

 vegetable is strong in us and will be satisfied, whatever the price. 

 In the Southern States this is less true. Rice, corn, and sweet 

 potatoes afford very satisfactory substitutes there. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF POTATO GROWING. 



The farm profits from the potato in Germany are not large, but 

 they are reasonably sure, and, as in all business enterprises where 

 the speculative element is eliminated, it is possible to run on a closer 

 margin and to take account of small economies. Certain indirect 

 benefits resulting from potato culture are influential in maintaining 

 the acreage. 



IMPROVEMENT IN SOIL PRODUCTIVITY. 



One of the great problems in German agricultural economy is to 

 increase the nation's harvests and at the same time to maintain the 

 productivity of the soil. Particularly on the light, infertile soils of 

 parts of eastern Germany was this an urgent necessity, and it is 

 surprising to find what has been accomplished there by modern 

 methods of crop rotation, green manuring, and fertilizing. It is 

 the testimony of the German specialists that the potato has played 

 the greatest role in this agricultural development, as the sugar beet 

 has done in their heavier soils. These hoed root crops are beneficial 

 to any soil, through the deep and thorough culture that is given them, 

 with its resultant improvement in the physical condition jind aera- 

 tion. The profits from the crop justify the liberal use of commer- 



1 Behrend, W. Deutschlands Kartoffelerzeugung und Verbrauch in Gegenwart und 

 Zukunft, Berlin, 1905. 



