16 BULLETIN 182, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



when potatoes are cultivated every third year. Since the potato 

 demands deep cultivation this crop accomplishes for the eastern 

 provinces what the sugar beet does for the heavier soils of the west- 

 em provinces. Furthermore, the alcohol distillery makes possible 

 the ready conversion of an unstable product into a stable one. At 

 best, potatoes can be kept only until the warm weather of the next 

 season sets in, whereas alcohol has been kept by the Central Associa- 

 tion for several years following an overproduction. Besides, the po- 

 tatoes can be sorted, as is done, for instance, in the neighborhood of 

 Berlin, and the best can be put upon the market for eating, while 

 the small and otherwise inferior ones — that is, those which are dam- 

 aged or which reveal poor keeping qualities — can be taken to the 

 distillery. Again, as soon as the potatoes show signs of decay the 

 capacity of the distillery can be increased. Thus a large part of the 

 waste of an important product of the farm can be saved, for even 

 those potatoes which are already partly decayed can be utilized. 



The spent mash — by far the most important by-product of the dis- 

 tillery — and the skins and watery wastes (Abwasser) are important 

 adjuncts to the food rations of cattle. The cattle in turn furnish 

 fertilizers to the soil, and are thus profitable aside from the pecuniary 

 advantages derived from the milk and the meat. In order to fully 

 appreciate the value placed on the manure, the by-product of the 

 dairy barn, it is necessary to see with what scrupulous care it is pre- 

 served as well as with what large expenditure of time and labor the 

 fields are manured. 



Thus everything works hand in hand. After having seen all this, 

 one begins to appreciate more fully why such an organization as the 

 Society of Distillers for the Disposal of Alcohol, consisting almost 

 exclusively of agriculturists, should be willing to spend so much 

 money and energy in finding new industrial outlets for alcohol and 

 for improving and popularizing the present outlets. This class are 

 not trying to improve their situation by stimulating the consump- 

 tion of alcohol as a beverage but by devoting their entire resources 

 to the increased use of technical alcohol, as it is called. In this way 

 they are not only helping themselves, but they are also striving to 

 make their country independent of Russia and of the United States 

 in so far as the use of petroleum is concerned. Besides, the rapidly 

 growing population of Germany demands that every acre of land 

 be cultivated as intensively as possible. It is interesting to note that 

 whereas the agriculturists as a class show considerable foresight in 

 this respect the average owner of an estate has not yet learned to 

 stimulate the consumption of alcohol by using it for technical 

 purposes on his own premises. 



For the sake of convenience the agricultural distilleries of Ger- 

 many may be classified into three groups, as follows : 



