8 BULLETIN 47, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The problem of securing a supply of disease-free seed has been 
met and solved in Germany in a manner that could profitably be 
adopted in the United States, since we now have to deal with the 
same type of disease, the leaf-roll. This can not be detected by an 
examination of the seed, and an inspection of the growing crop 
becomes necessary. 
In Germany this inspection is made upon request by expert repre- 
sentatives of the chamber of agriculture or of the German Agricul- 
tural Society, and certificates are issued to owners of disease-free 
crops. 
Such a plan for the United States would be better if carried out 
by the cooperation of potato growers' associations, the State experi- 
ment stations, and the United States Department of Agriculture, 
rather than through legal enactment. It would be especially valuable 
to the growers in western districts where leaf-roll is prevalent and 
to southern truckers who require seed free from blackleg, scab, and 
dry-rot. The benefit would not be confined to the purchaser, who is 
in this, way assured of the quality of his seed stock, for the producer 
would profit equally by the certification of his improved stock. 
SHOULD WE INCREASE OUR PRODUCTION? 
Under present conditions there are seasons of favorable weather, 
when the potato production of the country fully meets existing de- 
mands, and in some years the demand is, indeed, exceeded and the 
price falls below the cost of production. Too frequently, also, 
through drought or heat the crop is cut short and the price rises 
beyond what the consumer can afford to pay. 
This situation is very bad from an economic standpoint. Both 
producer and consumer suffer in the long run. The farmer runs too 
great a risk, and the retail price of potatoes frequently exceeds their 
food value. 
A commodity like the potato, which can not be preserved from one 
year to another, like grain, and which is too bulky to transport long 
distances, must be produced near the markets in ample quantities if 
stability of price is to be secured. 
FOREIGN SUPPLY NO LONGER AVAILABLE. 
In previous years of scarcity, potatoes have been imported from 
Europe in large quantities— 7^000,000 bushels in 1901, 8,000,000 in 
1908, and 18,000,000 in 1911. With them, however, came diseases 
hitherto unknown in America, like the blackleg and scurf and 
powdery scab; and the danger of importing the still more dreaded 
wart disease led the Secretary of Agriculture in September, 1912, 
to prohibit the importation of potatoes from Great Britain, Ger- 
