LESSONS FOR AMERICAN POTATO GROWERS. 3 
THE ROLE OF POTATOES IN THE NATIONAL DIETARY. 
The potato stands next to the cereals as the most important food 
of northern nations. In Germany this is particularly true, for the 
per capita consumption is 7.3 bushels, while ours is estimated at 2.6 
bushels. An interesting stud} 7 by Behrend 1 shows that the con- 
sumption of potatoes in Germany stands in inverse ratio to the 
wealth and social status of the people. The well-to-do people there 
use 3.6 bushels each per annum, the peasantry 8.8 bushels, and the 
laborers in western Germany 12.3 bushels, while in the eastern 
Provinces the per capita consumption of the poorer laborers is 17 
bushels each per year. 
The average wholesale price for table potatoes in Berlin, from 
1908 to 1912, inclusive, was 30 cents per bushel; that in Chicago 
during the same 5 -year period was 56 cents per bushel. A compari- 
son with the prices of wheat and corn will show that the American 
people could often purchase a unit of food value more cheaply in 
the form of cereals than as potatoes, but the inherited taste for this 
vegetable is strong in us and will be satisfied, whatever the price. 
In the Southern States this is less true. Rice, corn, and sweet 
potatoes afford very satisfactory substitutes there. 
INDIRECT BENEFITS OF POTATO GROWING. 
The farm profits from the potato in Germany are not large, but 
they are reasonably sure, and, as in all business enterprises where 
the speculative element is eliminated, it is possible to run on a closer 
margin and to take account of small economies. Certain indirect 
benefits resulting from potato culture are influential in maintaining 
the acreage. 
IMPROVEMENT IN SOIL PRODUCTIVITY. 
One of the great problems in German agricultural economy is to 
increase the nation's harvests and at the same time to maintain the 
productivity of the soil. Particularly on the light, infertile soils of 
parts of eastern Germany was this an urgent necessity, and it is 
surprising to find what has been accomplished there by modern 
methods of crop rotation, green manuring, and fertilizing. It is 
the testimony of the German specialists that the potato has played 
the greatest role in this agricultural development, as the sugar beet 
has done in their heavier soils. These hoed root crops are beneficial 
to any soil, through the deep and thorough culture that is given them, 
with its resultant improvement in the physical condition and aera- 
tion. The profits from the crop justify the liberal use of commer- 
1 Behrend, W. Deutschlands Kartoffelerzeugung und Verbrauch in Gegenwart und 
Zukunft, Berlin, 1905. 
