POTATOES: ACREAGE, PRODUCTION, ETC. 15 
in 1895-1904. Increase followed in 1905-1914, during which period 
the consumption of potatoes per capita was 3.77 bushels. In 1916 
the rer capita consumption was 2.82 bushels. These are low rates 
of consumption when comparison is made with various European 
countries in which the potato is a more prominent article of food. 
+) In years of deficient production of potatoes the imports do not 
offset the deficiency; they do so only in a small degree, consequently 
the rates of per capita consumption are determined almost entirely 
by the per capita production. For this reason a per capita con- 
sumption as low as 2.28 bushels is found for 1881, 2.40 bushels for 
1887, 2.44 bushels for 1874, and 2.48 bushels for 1890. On the 
other hand, the highest per capita consumption ever reached in this 
country, as far as is known, was 4.56 bushels in 1895. Averages next 
below this are 4.39 bushels in 1912, 4.35 bushels in 1909, and 4.13 
bushels in 1914. 
The foregoing numbers substantially represent the per capita con- 
sumption of domestic potatoes. There is, however, a relatively small 
consumption of foreign potatoes which amounted to 0.008 of 1 bushel 
in 1849, and increased to 0.048 of 1 bushel in 1885-1894. During 
the next 10 years the average consumption of foreign potatoes was 
0.019 of 1 bushel, and during the 10 years 1905-1914 the average was 
0.032 of 1 bushel. For 1916 the consumption was 0.03 of 1 bushel. 
All persons in a family do not eat potatoes and therefore a com- 
puted consumption per family may be better understood than the 
average individual consumption. In 1849 the average family con- 
sumption was approximately 16.35 bushels yearly, and the quantity 
declined during the two 10-year periods 1885-1894 and 1895-1904 to 
14.6 and 15.57 bushels per family. During the next 10 years, 
1905-1914, the per family consumption attained the highest 10-year 
average, 16.965 bushels. 
The per capita and per family average consumptions above given 
include potatoes used in this country for all purposes—not only for 
human food, but for seed, for feeding to live stock, for manufacturing 
potato starch, and other products, if any, and some degree of waste. 
In 1899, according to the census report on manufacturers, 3,952,358 
bushels of potatoes were used for making potato starch; 3,489,542 
bushels in 1904, 3,510,135 bushels in 1909, and 2,831,313 bushels in 
1914. The quantities of potatoes so used during these three years 
were from about 1 to 14 per cent of the production of potatoes. 
_ The seed requirements of the potato crop in this country have been 
ascertained by this bureau to be 8.6 bushels per acre as an average 
for the United States, but with a range of from 7 to 12 bushels in 
different parts of the country. During the 10-year period 1905-1914 
the average production of potatoes per acre was 97.0 bushels, and of 
this production 8.6 bushels were used for seed, or 8.9 per cent of the 
