18 



BULLETIN 81, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



It will be noted that during seven years of the twelve, more pota- 

 toes wore exported than were imported, while during five years the 

 imports exceeded the exports. 



The possibilities of potato production in the United States are 

 almost unlimited. All of the States could increase their acreage and 

 their average yield, and there exist in many northern districts, par- 

 ticularly in Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, large areas 

 of cut-over lands, recently in forest but now being brought under 

 cultivation, which could produce many times more potatoes than at 

 present. The same is true of the irrigated West. Under present 

 economic conditions, however, no material increases in acreage could 

 be made without risk of overproduction. 



Among the most striking features of potato culture in the United 

 States are the low average yield per acre, the relatively high cost of 

 production per bushel, the distance from markets of many important 



£?cpe/?rs 



3 S / 



3 *? 5 6 7 <P 3 



/O // /£ /3 /<? 



Fig. 1.— Exports and imports of potatoes for the United States during the years 1900 to 1911, inclu- 

 sive, showing graphically the alternating seasons of overproduction and scarcity. 



potato districts, and the fluctuations in the market price, which make 

 potato growing rather a speculative enterprise. 



To insure permanent prosperity there is a real need for the adoption 

 of a constructive policy that will strike at the roots of the present 

 difficulties, a policy of which quarantines or the regulation of imports 

 are only minor phases, for foreign potatoes must of necessity in the 

 future play a still smaller r61e than now in supplying food to the 

 people of the United States as our population increases and as the 

 European crop will be more and more needed for home consumption. 



PROTECTION FROM DISEASE. 



In view of the already excessive losses from diseases and insects, 

 it is apparent that it is of national importance to prevent the intro- 

 duction of more pests of this nature from other countries, a pro- 

 tection which is afforded through the plant quarantine act. 



