16 BULLETIN 81, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Table I. — Acreage, production, value, prices, exports, a/id imports of potatoes in the 

 United States, 1900 to 1912, inclusive. 



Year. 



Acreage 

 planted and 

 harvested. 



Average 



yield per 



acre. 



Production. 



Averag e 



farm 



price per 



bushel, 



Dec. 1. 



Farm value, 

 Dec. 1. 



For fiscal vear beginning 

 July 1. 



Domestic 

 exports. 



Imports. 



1900 



2.611,000 

 2,864,000 

 2,966,000 

 2,917,000 

 3,016.000 

 2,997.000 

 3, 013, 000 

 3,128,000 

 3,257.000 

 3,525.000 

 3.720.000 

 3.619,000 

 3,711,000 



Bushels. 

 80.8 

 65.5 

 96 

 84.7 



110.4 

 87 



102.2 

 95.4 

 85.7 



106.8 

 93.8 

 80.9 



113. 3 



Bushels. 



210,927,000 

 187,598.000 

 284, 633, 000 

 247, 128, 000 

 332,830,000 

 260,741,000 

 308,038,000 

 298,262,000 

 278,985,000 

 376,537,000 

 349.032,000 

 292,737,000 

 420,047.000 



Cents. 

 43.1 

 76.7 

 47.1 

 61.4 

 45.3 

 61.7 

 51.1 

 61.8 

 70.6 

 54.9 

 55. 7 

 79.9 

 50.5 



890,811,000 

 143,979,000 

 134,111,000 

 151, 638, 000 

 150, 673, 000 

 160,821,000 

 157, 547, 000 

 184, 184, 000 

 197,039,000 

 206,545,000 

 194, 566, 000 

 233,778,000 

 212, 550, 000 



Bushels. 



741,483 



528, 484 



843. 075 



484, 042 



1,163,270 



1,000,326 



1,530,461 



1,203,894 



763, 651 



999,476 



2,383,887 



1,237,276 



Bushels. 

 371,911 



1901 



7, 656, 162 

 358, 505 



1902 



1903 



3, 166, 581 

 181,199 



1904 



1905 



1,984,160 

 176, 917 



1906 



1907 



403, 952 



190S 



8,383,906 



1909 



353,208 

 210, 9S4 



1910 



1911 



13.734.095 



1912 







! 



THE 1913 POTATO CROP. 



The potato crop of the United States for 1913 is estimated to be 

 238,946,000 bushels. The principal shortage is in the Central States, 

 which are not the leading potato States. Comparisons to determine 

 the actual needs of the country can not fairly be made with the 1912 

 crop, which was so large that hundreds of thousands of bushels went 

 to waste for lack of a market and millions of bushels were sold for 

 less than the cost of production. 



The following is quoted from the department's Weekly News Letter 

 to Crop Correspondents, January 28, 1914: 



Firmer Holding of Potatoes by the Farmers. 



SUPPLY IS NEARLY NORMAL, BUT DISTRIBUTION IS UNUSUALLY UNEVEN — PRINCIPAL 

 rOTATO-PRODUCING STATES HOLD SUPPLIES, WITH SHORTAGE IN A NUMBER OF 

 CONSUMING STATES. 



The yearly estimates of the amount of potatoes remaining in growers' hands and 

 the stocks in dealers' hands on January 1 in the important potato States, just com- 

 pleted by the Bureau of Statistics (Agricultural Forecasts), United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, indicate that a larger proportion of the marketable crop of 

 potatoes was still in the hands of farmers on January 1 than had been the case for 

 four years past. The proportion estimated to be in dealers' hands was smaller than 

 for any year of the four except January 1, 1912. The figures showed that the total 

 estimated potato production was below normal, but, owing to the slow movement of 

 the crop up to January 1, the supply for the remainder of the year will be almost 

 normal. Distribution, however, seems to be unusually uneven. The holdings of 

 potatoes are relatively large in the important producing States of Maine, Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, and Minnesota; and relatively small in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 

 nois, Iowa, and Kansas, •which are important both as potato-producing and potato- 

 consuming States. 



In consequence of the firm holding by farmers the price early in the season has 

 been unusually high, being on December 1 about 17 J cents per bushel higher than 



