16 
BULLETIN 81, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table I. — Acreage, production, value, prices, exports, and imports of potatoes in the 
United States, 1900 to 1912, inclusive. 
Year. 
Acreage 
planted and 
harvested. 
Average 
yield per 
acre. 
Production. 
Averag e 
farm 
price per 
bushel, 
Dec. 1. 
Farm value, 
For fiscal vear beginning 
July 1. 
Dec. 1. 
Domestic 
exports. 
Imports. 
1900 
2,611.000 
2,864,000 
2,966.000 
2,917,000 
3,016,000 
2,997,000 
3,013,000 
3,128.000 
3,257,000 
3,525.000 
3,720,000 
3.619,000 
3,711,000 
Bushels. 
80.8 
65.5 
96 
84.7 
110.4 
87 
102.2 
95.4 
85.7 
106.8 
93.8 
80.9 
113.3 
Bushels. 
210,927,000 
187,598,000 
284, 633, 000 
247, 128'. 000 
332,830,000 
260,741,000 
308,038,000 
298,262,000 
278, 985, 000 
376,537,000 
349,032,000 
292,737,000 
420,647,000 
Cents. 
43.1 
76. 7 
47.1 
61.4 
45.3 
61.7 
51.1 
61.8 
70.6 
54.9 
55.7 
79.9 
50.5 
890,811,000 
143,979,000 
134,111,000 
151, 638, 000 
150,673,000 
160,821,000 
157,547,000 
184, 184, 000 
197, 039. 000 
206.545,000 
194,566,000 
233, 778, 000 
212, 550, 000 
Bushels. 
741,483 
528, 484 
843.075 
4S4, 042 
1, 163, 270 
1,000,326 
1,530,461 
1,203,894 
763, 651 
999,476 
2,383,887 
1,237,276 
Bushels. 
371,911 
1901 
7, 656, 162 
358, 505 
1902 
1903 
3, 166, 581 
1904 
181, 199 
1905 
1, 984, 160 
1906 
176,917 
403,952 
1907 
1908 
8, 383, 966 
1909 
353,208 
216, 984 
1910 
1911 
13,734,695 
1912 
THE 1913 POTATO CROP. 
The potato crop of the United States for 1913 is estimated to be 
238,946,000 bushels. The principal shortage is in the Central States, 
which are not the leading potato States. Comparisons to determine 
the actual needs of the country can not fairly be made with the 1912 
crop, which was so large that hundreds of thousands of bushels went t 
to waste for lack of a market and millions of- bushels were sold for i 
less than the cost of production. 
The following is quoted from the department's Weekly News Letter i 
to Crop Correspondents, January 28, 1914: 
Firmer Holding of Potatoes by the Farmers. 
SUPPLY IS NEARLY NORMAL, BUT DISTRIBUTION IS UNUSUALLY UNEVEN — PRINCIPAL 
POTATO-PRODUCING STATES HOLD SUPPLIES, "WITH SHORTAGE IN A NUMBER OF 
CONSUMING STATES. 
The yearly estimates of the amount of potatoes remaining in growers' hands and 
the stocks in dealers' hands on January 1 in the important potato States, just com- 
pleted by the Bureau of Statistics (Agricultural Forecasts), United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, indicate that a larger proportion of the marketable crop of 
potatoes was still in the hands of farmers on January 1 than had been the case for 
four years past. The proportion estimated to be in dealers' hands was smaller than 
for any year of the four except January 1, 1912. The figures showed that the total 
estimated potato production was below normal, but, owing to the slow movement of 
the crop up to January 1, the supply for the remainder of the year will be almost 
normal. Distribution, however, seems to be unusually uneven. The holdings of 
potatoes are relatively large in the important producing States of Maine, Michigan, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota; and relatively small in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Iowa, and Kansas, which are important both as potato-producing and potato- 
consuming States. * 
In consequence of the firm holding by farmers the price early in the season has 
been unusually high, being on December 1 about 17 J cents per bushel higher than 
