potatoes: acreage, production, etc. 15 



in 1895-1904. Increase followed in 1905-1914, during which period 

 the consumption of potatoes per capita was 3.77 bushels. In 1916 

 the per capita consumption was 2.82 bushels. These are low rates 

 of consumption when comparison is made with various European 

 countries in which the potato is a more prominent article of food. 



In years of deficient production of potatoes the imports do not 

 offset the deficiency; they do so only in a small degree, consequently 

 the rates of per capita consumption are determined almost entirely 

 by the per capita production. For this reason a per capita con- 

 sumption as low as 2.28 bushels is found for 1881, 2.40 bushels for 

 1887, 2.44 bushels for 1874, and 2.48 bushels for 1890. On the 

 other hand, the highest per capita consumption ever reached in this 

 country, as far as is known, was 4.56 bushels in 1895. Averages next 

 below this are 4.39 bushels in 1912, 4.35 bushels in 1909, and 4.13 

 bushels in 1914. 



The foregoing numbers substantially represent the per capita con- 

 sumption of domestic potatoes. There is, however, a relatively small 

 consumption of foreign potatoes which amounted to 0,008 of 1 bushel 

 in 1849, and increased to 0.048 of 1 bushel in 1885-1894. During 

 the next 10 years the average consumption of foreign potatoes was 

 0.019 of 1 bushel, and during the 10 years 1905-1914 the average was' 

 0.032 of 1 bushel. For 1916 the consumption was 0.03 of 1 bushel. 



All persons in a family do not eat potatoes and therefore a com- 

 puted consumption per family may be better understood than the 

 average individual consumption. In 1849 the average family con- 

 simiption was approximately 16.35 bushels yearly, and the quantity 

 declined during the two 10-year periods 1885-1894 and 1895-1904 to 

 14.6 and 15.57 bushels per family. During the next 10 years, 

 1905-1914, the per family consumption attained the highest 10-year 

 average, 16.965 bushels. 



The per capita and per family average consumptions above given 

 include potatoes used in this country for all purposes — not only for 

 human food, but for seed, for feeding to live stock, for manufacturing 

 potato starch, and other products, if any, and some degree of waste. 

 In 1899, according to the census report on manufacturers, 3,952,358 

 bushels of potatoes were used for making potato starch; 3,489,542 

 bushels in 1904, 3,510,135 bushels in 1909, and 2,831,313 bushels in 

 1914. The quantities of potatoes so used during these three years 

 were from about 1 to 1^ per cent of the production of potatoes. 



The seed requirements of the potato crop in this country have been 

 ascertained by this bureau to be 8.6 bushels per acre as an average 

 for the United States, but with a range of from 7 to 12 bushels in 

 different parts of the country. During the 10-year period 1905-1914 

 the average production of potatoes per acre was 97.0 bushels, and of 

 this production 8.6 bushels were used for seed, or 8.9 per cent of the 



