Production and Trade Potato Cultivation

Grading and Marketing.

Government estimates show that about 50% of the potato crop enters trade channels. Of the re mainder, about 2o% is reserved for food on the farm where grown, 1 2 % for seed, while the remaining 18% is fed to livestock or dis carded as worthless. About one-half of the surplus crop is shipped in box cars and refrigerator cars, the rest being trucked to nearby markets. Formerly, bulk shipments were most common, the present tendency being to use bags of 150 or 120 lb. capacity. Southern potatoes are shipped mostly in ventilated stave barrels each hold ing i i pecks or 165 lb. of potatoes. Receipts for potatoes from various regions are much influenced by factors affecting market quality such as brightness and colour of skin, uniformity of size and freedom from defects in the tubers. Such defects as scab, dry rot, sunburn, freezing injury, wire-worm holes, hollow-heart, growth cracks, and second-growth tubers are sometimes serious. Government standards for grading potatoes have been estab lished in the United States. These standards stipulate both the size requirements and the freedom from defects necessary for each grade. The three grades established are U.S. Number 1, U.S. Number 2, and U.S. Fancy. Most potatoes shipped as graded are labeled U.S. Number i and price quotations are usually made on this basis. (E. V. H.) Production in Russia.—At the beginning of the century Rus sia (including Poland) was occupying the first place among all countries in regard to its acreage under potatoes. After the World War Russia lost a whole series of potato growing tracts, and the potato area now is said to be similar to that of Germany.

Because of the poor technique, the yields of potatoes in Russia are small. Of early varieties Early Rose and Kaiser Krone are important. Of main crops (a) (Yellow tubers) Imperator, Maeker, Silesia, Magnum Bonum and Champion, and (b) (Red tubers) Wohltmann, Daber, Sachsioka Zwiebel, Bismarck and (c) (Blue tubers) Blaue Riesen, Myshka and Sinjukha.

By-products of Potatoes.

In most countries the crop is used entirely for human consumption, but in a few some of the crop passes into factories—both small and large—where it is manu factured into (a) Dried potatoes, (b) Farina, or (c) Alcohol.

(a) Dried Potatoes.—Factories for drying potatoes exist in Ire land, England, Germany, France and the U.S.A., and these pro duce potato soups, potato crisps and flakes, and in Germany, cattle foods. The average composition of the potato as grown in

Britain as determined from the figures published in the report of the Royal Society is as follows: water 77.92%, dry matter 22.08%, so that it requires three and a half to four tons of raw potatoes to produce one ton of dried potatoes. The drying of potatoes for the manufacture of some special food, such as potato crisps or flakes, may increase in America and England, but the crop is too costly and uncertain for the establishment of an industry on anything like the size that exists at present in Germany. In Ger many, starting in 1908 with three drying factories, the numbers grew until there were 841. The industry is carried on almost ex clusively by farmers on their own farms.

(b) Farina.—When potatoes are peeled, the flesh dried and ground into flour, there is produced a white powder known as potato starch or farina. Farina can be made also from the sweet potato, from rice, wheat and maize, so it is somewhat difficult to find out exactly what tonnage of potato is converted annually to farina. It is known however that farina is produced from po tatoes in Germany, France, Holland and the United States. Ger many is the chief "farina" producing country. The production is carried out mainly in small farm factories though there are a few large town factories. In The United States starch is made in the main from small, blemished and diseased potatoes and in con sequence the "farina" is of low quality. The industry is confined to 70 factories in the county of Aroostook and 17 in the two States of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The production of starch in recent years has been as follows : 20,000,000 pounds in 1921, 18,000,000 pounds in 1922, 13,400,000 pounds in 1923 and 000,000 pounds in 1924. Since then the production has been on a somewhat smaller scale. In Holland, potato-starch production would be about 30,000 tons annually. The varieties of potato, President, Thorbeck, Rigenheimers and Red Star, are recognized by the manufacturers as best for this purpose.

(c) Alcohol.—In Germany, Sweden and the United States, po tato starch is fermented to produce alcohol, which is then collected by distillation. Production of potato alcohol in Germany has been as high as 1oo,000,000 gallons. (H. V. T.) POTATO-LIFTER: see HARVESTING MACHINERY.