*See Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich, p. 134.

By substracting the excess of exports in the one case, or adding the excess of imports in the other, from or to the total production, the internal consumption of a product will be obtained. Bearing this in mind the following table shows the respective annual internal consumption of potatoes in Germany and the United States for the years 1899-1902:

Total consumption in Germany and the United States.

NOTE. These figures can not be said to be accurate, because they have been obtained by assuming that the population of Germany was 56,367,178 and the same in the years 1899, 1900, 1901, and 1902, and that of the United States 76,215,312 and the same in the years 1899 and 1900, which were not the facts.

There would appear to be two principal ways in which potatoes are consumed, namely, as food for persons and animals and for distilling and manufacturing purposes. (The writer has heard it said that potatoes, after they have become more or less dried up and hard, have not infrequently been used as fuel.)

The figures are lacking which relate to the ways in which pota toes were consumed in the United States during the years 1899–1902, both inclusive. Based upon the information contained on page 35 of Volume VII of the Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, and page 797 of the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture,

1900, however, one might perhaps be justified in estimating that in the United States in the year 1900 not more than 7,946, 366.59 bushels of potatoes were used for manufacturing purposes; so that the quantity consumed as food in that year was about 202,326,919.41 bushels, or 2.65 bushels per capita.

Let us now attempt to gain an insight into the ways potatoes have been consumed in Germany during the past four years. Here, also, we shall have difficulty because of the somewhat meager statistics at hand. In Germany, strange as it may seem to foreigners, it may be said that almost seven-eighths of the alcohol produced is obtained from potatoes.* On many of the large farms one finds potato distilleries. These are under the careful control of the Government. They afford the farmers a very profitable side occupation. The manufacture of starch, glucose, etc., should also be mentioned as a factor in the potato consumption of Germany.

The following table shows the number of potato distilleries, the quantity of potatoes consumed, and the quantity of alcohol produced therefrom in Germany:†

Below an attempt is made to estimate the number of establishments making starch, glucose, etc., the quantity of potatoes used therein, and the amount of starchy materials produced in the years 1899-1902:

By deducting the quantities of potatoes consumed each year in the distilleries and factories from the total consumption, the amount used as food for persons and animals will be obtained.

*See Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich, p. 55.

+ See ibid, pp. 54 and 55.

See pamphlet for 1902 of the Verein der Spiritus Fabrikanten in Deutschland.

The following table shows the quantity of potatoes consumed as food in Germany during the years 1899-1902, both inclusive, respectively:

NOTE. From this amount a certain small per cent should be deducted for seed potatoes. The writer has no way of estimating just what this should be.

By reckoning 60 pounds of potatoes to the bushel, as has been done throughout this report, it will be seen that the consumption per capita was:

1899.........

1900..

1901.

1902..

Pounds. 1,367.4 I, 443. 6

I, 741. 2

I, 521

Of the total quantity of potatoes consumed as food it might perhaps be roughly estimated that about 50 per cent is really consumed by human beings. The rest is spent in cleaning, paring and cooking, wasted, disappears in shrinkage (due to a loss of water by evaporation), and fed to animals, principally to swine, fowls, and dogs.

The following table shows the estimated actual consumption of potatoes as human food in Germany during the last four years:*

These figures, in spite of the reductions, are simply enormous. Before venturing to make any general remarks in conclusion, a word or two should be said about prices. This may perhaps be just as well accomplished by means of the following table, which, in addition to showing facts hereinbefore mentioned, gives the market value per bushel of potatoes used for manufacturing purposes

*The writer is familiar with Dr. C. F. Langworthy's article on "The value of potatoes as food," which is to be found on p. 336 of the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1900.

in distilleries and starch factories and as food, the total value of the crops, and the value thereof per acre in Germany during the last four years:*

NOTE. In calculating the yield per acre in dollars, the value of the total production- not the total consumption-has been divided by the number of the acres under cultivation.

As for the United States, the following table shows the acreage, the total consumption in bushels, the farm value per bushel in cents, the total farm value in dollars, and the yield per acre in dollars on the 1st of December in the years 1899-1902:†

These various tables above given have been prepared in order to show at a glance something about the production of potatoes in Germany and the United States. The methods employed in raising such vegetables in these two countries are each typical of a system of farming-in Germany of the intensive and in the United States of the extensive.

*See Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich, p. 188.
+ See Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1900, p. 797.

It would seem as if there were, if not an overproduction, at least an excessive consumption of potatoes in the former, while in the latter the conditions are exactly the opposite-i. e., there are not enough potatoes produced to even supply the demand..

In many rural sections of Germany large numbers of the population live chiefly upon potatoes* and coffee.

The Agrarians-indeed nearly all of those who are interested in agriculture in this country-are much concerned about the rapid increase in the potato production. How to dispose of the surplus. of the potato crops is the serious question. Some supposed that were the Government to foster the exportation of alcohol-viz, spirits, liquors, etc.-by means of premiums, drawbacks, etc., the excess of potatoes would be consumed in the distilleries, but upon investigation it was found that this was almost impossible, as at present not 8 per cent of the production of potatoes is used in this way. Efforts are being made to find some way of utilizing potatoes as feed for cattle. With this in view, money prizes are being offered as a compensation (reward) to the one who will discover some such process. It is feared, however, that were such a means found it would not be practical, because it would make cattle feed too expensive, potatoes containing such a high percentage of water.†

It is reported that a German has made the discovery that by means of a chemical preparation being poured over potatoes they may be kept in a condition of preservation for years. If this is true it will be of the utmost importance to all countries, as it will enable them to keep a large stock of potatoes on hand as food for their respective armies, thus better preparing them for some unfore

seen war.

All the more strange is it that the United States should produce such a comparatively small quantity of potatoes-even less than the British Isles-when one considers that not only is the cultivation of potatoes, as well as other vegetables, one of the best-known ways of preparing land for the raising of breadstuffs, but because it is very much more profitable to raise potatoes than any kind of grain.]

Under similar circumstances, as a matter of fact, an acre planted with potatoes will yield more than ten, fourteen, or seventeen times as much food material as will one upon which wheat, rye, or peas, respectively, is grown.¶

It may be said, generally speaking, that it is the opinion of scientific German agriculturalists that about half of the land under

*See Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1900, p. 340.

+ See Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Jena, 1903, article by Professor Pierstorff. This is being investigated and will be made the subject of a subsequent report.

§ See Statesman's Yearbook, 1903, p. 72.

[See Roscher's Grundlagen der Nationalökonomie, 1900, p. 472.

See Engel's Jahrbuch für Sachsen, Vol. I, p. 419.