The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-09-14

The success cf TIE Pingrse plan may Re
considered another tribute 70 the worth
OF tire humble potato. That fartnaceous
,s,l,sr owes rs lack o. honor entirely 70 its
own prolIaeness. Il s. we're more rare
& would rank high as the banana whose
true utility in the cuisine Is yet unappre-
cfatea Al present Il ranks as a semi
tropical dainty. bat its right 70 such rec
ignition Is no better established than that
81 the Chilean child OF the nightshade
whose worth vas observed by Sir Walter
Raleigh over three hundred years ago.
LET the sky rain potatoes" says Shaks-
pezre. and let them flourish" say we OF
the state OF Washington, for It forms
many a dainty dish. and It Is moreover a
money maker.
We do not have enough potatoes; we have
never had enough. We are 50 eager 20
have potatoes that last year We paid out
s.Z77.iei for less than enough 20 60
around. Since Raleigh first planted them
on his estate near Cork they have been
generally known as Irish potatoes" 10
distinguish them no doubt from the Spanish
potato now known 10 us as sweet pofa-
70. Of which. however, II is no relstive
Indeed. while the one belongs to the night
shade family. the other descends from the
morning glory stock The French have dis
earded the old name batata, and its An
gllcized potato; and surrounded it with a
poetic halo as pomme de terre, and il is
indeed the apple or the earth.
Although We grow annually about no.
o0S.ooo bushels OF potatoes Germany is the
greatest producer, leading with 800, 900. 90
20 10000 coo bushels a year, and Russia
comes next with 100000. The relative
importance OF the potato as food crop
may be judged by the fact that In Eu-
rope the crop for all countries reported
last year aggregated more bushels than
the combined wheat and rye crops, and
the crop of that continent exceeds the az
gregate wheat crop Of the world
In the United States last year 2.7g7 s73
acres were devoted to this crop, and that
was an increase over the year before Of
$500 acres. The product Of 1884,. on ac-
count OF an unfavorable season. was APPS
600 bushels short OF the year before. not
withstanding the increased acreage. But
In measuring the popularity OF the pota-
TO as an article OF farm product. the pro-
duct is scarcely worthy Of consideration.
for the increase in the area Of land de-
voted to the crop is plainly the index Of
It's popularity. All the evidence available
indicates that there are now 1900. 600 acres
or potatoes growing in the United States.
Nevertheless, the imports for the fiscal
year ending June 81. 1894 were s.002 57s
bushels-or as much almost as the entire
product Of the state OF Massachusetts for
that year. where 81 200 acres OF the best
OF land was devoted 10 the crop. The
value Of the importations that year was
N'z28lsi. II the report for the year end
ing June 30. 1895. were now available. il
would show much increased importations
in that fiscal year, for the potato crop last
year was 2,2i6,o00 bushels less than the
crop the year before. and importations
would naturally either increase propor-
tionately or some one would go without
potatoes. The importatlons for the year
ending June %. 1894. were divided as fol-
Iouc.