NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
in the starch-content of the potato for this 
manufacture is particularly desirable. 
But important as this breeding of potatoes 
is from a manufacturing point of view, it is 
still more important as a means of food sup- 
ply. The great value of the potato as a food 
lies in its being a concentrated food, supplying 
both heat and energy, though needing the 
foods rich in protein to make up a model bal- 
anced ration. Mr. Burbank is now making over 
the potato. He long ago saw its possibilities, 
and only the tremendous demands of other ex- 
periments upon him have prevented the com- 
pletion of the work. He will leave the potato, 
when he is done with it, a far more impor- 
tant feature of the world’s supply of food than 
it has ever been before. Already enough has 
been accomplished in the preliminary test, to 
foreshadow the end. He has had four main 
objects in view in the work: A potato with 
a better flavor, one with a relatively larger 
amount of sugar, one that will be of a larger 
size and all of the same uniform shape and 
size, and one that will better resist disease 
and be a larger yielder than any potato now 
known. 
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