THE POTATO AND THE POMATO 
as easy to breed potatoes for a larger amount 
of starch as it is to breed for any other charac- 
teristic — flavor, resistance to disease, with- 
standing drought, adaptability to a given 
climate, early or late maturing, and so on. 
If in his experiments he develops a potato 
which has twenty-five per cent more starch 
than the normal potato,—though even a 
larger amount is possible,—the result is of 
marked importance from the point of view of 
the manufacturer. The value of the average 
annual production of potatoes in the United 
States is now, approximately, one hundred 
millions of dollars. In round numbers the 
United States produces each year about ten 
million dollars’ worth of starch. The chief 
sources of supply for this starch are Indian 
corn and potatoes. Of the four main uses 
to which starch is put,—for the laundry, 
for the manufacture of glucose, for edible 
purposes, and for use in the textile arts,—corn, 
in the United States, supplies the main 
portion of the first two. In Europe the potato 
is practically the main source of starch supply. 
Potato starch is of much importance to the 
manufacturer of cottons, woolens, silks and 
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