488 THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 
that the area under cultivation is annually about | this immense quantity, Herr Benary says that 
3,342,500 acres, and the total yield for the | 1,313,584 tons were employed for distilling ; but 
he is unable to state what proportion 
of the remaining 24,988,180 tons was 
used in the manufacture of starch, as 
no statistics are obtainable. 
idea of the enormous commercial and 
economical advantages which have ac- 
crued from the introduction of the 
Potato into Europe. 
Improvement and Deterioration. — It 
would now be interesting to trace the 
steps by which the great improvement 
in the cultivated forms of the Potato 
has been brought about. Fortunately, 
produces like” does not hold good; for 
had the development of the Potato been 
bable that our present supply would be 
similar in character to those of which 
Gerarde speaks. And here it is neces- 
sary to refer to a misunderstanding aris- 
ing from the fact that ‘“‘seed Potatoes” 
and “ Potato seeds” are sometimes re- 
garded as synonymous terms. ‘Seed Potatoes” 
are grown from perfectly true and _ reliable 
Fig. 1252.—Potato Flower. 
whole of France is 10,100,000 tons, or, mak- 
ing allowance for the quantity exported and 
imported, the consumption 
amounted to 10,000,000 tons. 
Whilst in England Potatoes 
are grown almost entirely for 
use as an esculent, Monsieur 
Vilmorin estimates that about 
two-fifths, or 4,000,000 tons, 
are annually used in France 
in the manufacture of starch 
and alcohol. 
I also learn from my friend 
Herr Fritz Benary of Erfurt, 
who has placed in my hands 
very valuable statistics, that 
the area devoted to Potatoes 
in the German Empire in 1893 
was 7,592,165 acres. The total 
quantity of Potatoes harvest- 
ed amounted to 32,277,851 
tons, or, allowing for the quan- 
tities imported and exported, 
32,376,497 tons, which was the 
total quantity available for 
use. Out of this total 6,074,732 
tons were reserved to plant 
the crops of the following 
year, leaving 26,301,765 tons for consumption 
as food and for manufacturing purposes. Of 
Fig. 1253.—Potato Fruits and Foliage. 
stocks, the crops being carefully examined year 
after year with the special object of ensuring 
From the figures quoted we get some | 
in this instance the old rule that “like 
restricted by such limitations, it 1s pro-— 
