8 BULLETIN 695, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



value for which was $151,602,000; by 1908 the total had, reached 

 $210,618,000, and. the total for 1915 was $221,992,000; 1916 wit- 

 nessed, an enormous increase in total value, for which year the 

 estimate is $419,333,000, and this amount was much exceeded by 

 $543,865,000 in 1917. 



A strong tendency to increase from one 10-year period to the next 

 is in evidence. The average total value of the farm potato crop for 

 1866-1874 was $63,799,000; for 1895-1904 it was $117,012,000; and 

 during the following 10 years the average greatly increased to 

 $202,855,000. 



AVERAGE VALUE PER ACRE. 



Upon relating the total value of the potato crop to the total acreage 

 and computing the average value per acre, it appears that fsom the 

 period 1866-1874 to 1885-1894 the average declined from $51.34 to 

 $35.98. Then followed the somewhat higher average of $39.03 per 

 acre for 1895-1904 and the remarkable increase of 1905-1914 resulting 

 in an average of $57.28 per acre. 



PERCENTAGE OF SUPPLY. 



Production may now be viewed in relation to the national supply 

 of potatoes, the understanding of the word "supply" being the entire 

 quantity of potatoes produced in this country and received from 

 other countries as imports. This supply is diminished by the exports 

 of the domestic crop, but if there were no domestic exports the supply 

 would be equal to the consumption. So small relatively are the 

 imports of potatoes that the production has been from 98.4 to 99.8 

 per cent of the supply in 10-year periods; and these percentages 

 approximately represent the range for value, that is, the percentage 

 that the value of the crop is of the value of the supply. 



IMPORTS. ^ 



QUANTITY RECEIVED. 



Potatoes do not occupy a place of perceptible importance in the 

 import trade of this country, except in a small degree in years when 

 the production is deficient. As before stated, the production of pota- 

 toes in the United States is usually approximately the consumption, 

 but let the production fall perceptibly below the customary con- 

 sumption and imports begin to arrive from countries whose export 

 trade is attracted by the higher prices of this country. So it has 

 happened, for instance in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1876, a 

 year of low production, that the imports of potatoes, which had pre- 

 viously been relatively very small, suddenly amounted to 3,206,000 

 bushels; again in 1881, another year of low production, the imports 

 reached 8,790,000 bushels; the next year of low production, 1887, 

 was a year of imports amounting to 8,260,000 bushels; again in the 

 similar year 1901 the imports were 7,656,000 bushels; and in 1908 



