UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 784 A 
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Contribution from the States Relations Service 
A. C. TRUE, Director 
Washington, D. C. 
PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 
June 10, 1919 
LESSONS ON POTATOES FOR ELEMENTARY 
RURAL SCHOOLS. 
By Alvin Dille, Assistant in Agricultural Education. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Lesson I 4 
II G 
III 7 
IV 9 
V 10 
VI 12 
Page. 
Lesson VII 13 
VIII 15 
IX 16 
X 18 
XI 19 
XII 21 
Supplement . 23 
INTRODUCTION. 
Importance. — The potato is one of the most widely cultivated of 
the agricultural plants, and, next to Indian corn, it is the most im- 
portant contribution of America to the food supply of the world. 
Probably no crop except rice is eaten by a greater number of people. 
In the more thickly populated regions of Northern Europe, the potato 
is now the most important of human foods, furnishing about 25 per 
cent of the food of the continental and English peoples. Only the 
Oriental peoples exist without it. Not only are the tubers used for 
food, but they have important industrial uses. The plant is allied 
botanically to several powerful narcotics, such as tobacco, henbane, 
and belladonna, and also the tomato, eggplant, and pepper. 
As our American population increases, the potato will become more 
and more important in this country, there being no other crop which 
will give such a large yield of food suitable for man, under such vary- 
ing conditions. 
Educational value. — The importance of the potato crop as briefly 
indicated above and the fact that it can be grown successfully in 
every State in the Union, should give it a place in courses in general 
105900°— Bull. 784—19 1 
