NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
a potato may be bred to increase or decrease 
its chief characters. The average potato is 
composed of about seventy-five per cent 
water and twenty-five per cent dry matter. 
This latter is, broadly speaking, composed of 
starch, protein and fat; though these two 
latter elements are present in but small quan- 
tities, the main body of the dry matter being 
the starch. In the growing potato vine there 
is a very large proportion of starch, larger than 
either rice or corn, approximately eighty per 
cent. 
Before considering the immediate plans of 
Mr. Burbank in the improvement of the po- 
tato as a table food, it will be of interest to 
show something of the practical bearing of 
his work upon the manufacturing possibilities 
of the potato in the line of starch. The 
seventy-five per cent of the potato which con- 
sists of water may, from the manufacturing 
point of view, be considered as largely waste, 
or, if not waste, at least of no commercial 
value. Very much of this waste may be re- 
stored, negatively speaking, by driving out the 
water and putting starch in its place. Mr. 
Burbank’s investigations have shown that it is 
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