The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-11-20

Most OF us eat our potato and think no
more about 1t. but, like everything else,
there are potatoes and potatoes, some of
them OF most surprising pecuniary value
to the potato raisers who make fortunes
out of the propagation of new varieties.
On the other side of the water this potato
culture is carried to an especially high
degree of indicidual perfection and there
has recently been organized In England
national potato society, composed, not
CT potatoes hut of those who raise them,
either for market or for their own
amusement The new society has already
held one ".potato show at the Crystal
Palace, at which, counting the value of
several new varieties that are the ex-
elusive property of their respective dis
ooverers, 1t tas been estimated that over
100000 worth Of potatoes were exhib-
tied
Some of these new varieties are quoted
at most surprising prices. ranging even
as high as $4,000 a pound. This extra
ordinary price for potatoes however. has
a practical bearing for a single pound
thus purchased is sufficient to produce
between one and two hundred pounds
in a season. and therefore sufficient to
stock whole poptato farm In compare
lively short period. Some of the new va
rieties reproduce much more generous
ly than others. There is the "Eldorado''
for example, single one Of which, weigh
ing three ounces was lately purchased
at an approximately exhorbitant figure
by an English nobleman with fad for
potato growing. This three ounce pota-
to cost originally something in the neigh
hnr1aOd "a S0SO nd prOdlpad fiftU-eiY
pounds of potatoes 29S times the
original weight. Among other potatoes
that have recently brought phenomenal
prices are such seductive titles as the
Pearl" Gold Reef" Diamond Reef
ard Million Maker"
Whether these prize potatoes are as
superior In taste as they ought to be
to the ordinary variety is a question that
obviously very few of us are likely ever
to have an opportunity to answer. One
of the foremost British potato experts,
however, after a meal at which he had
eaten $500 worth of his own product,
has said that they Just tasted like good
potatoes-white, mealy and fine flavor
ed"
1t would be hard for the average
American housewife to imagine making
bread out OF any thing but -four but
taking the world over there are many
remarkable and curious substitutes. In
certain districts of Italy, for example,
acorn flour supports existence for a good
part of the population, the acorns being
allowed partly to ferment and then be-
ing chopped, boiled and dried until they
reach a proper consistency. In ireland
the moss commonly known as Iceland
moss, is picked from the rocks. dried
and ground into a fine -four that Is used
both for rread and cake. And dried
bark is yet another remarkable constit-
uent for kind of flour that Is much
used by the poorer people of the north
of Europe. This wooden flour" Is the
inner bark of the fir tree, carefully strip
ped from the trees in spring and then
dried in the sun and stored away for
the next winter. When 1t is actually
needed to supply the family table the
bark is again dried over a slow fire and
finally ground to a fine meal. The sturdy
housewife makes the meal into a dough
with cold water but without yeast or
baking powder, and finally kneads 1t into
thin cakes which are cooked rapidly and
have a distinctly bitter taste combined
with a good deal of nourishment.
Perhaps the most remarkable OF all
-four substitutes. however. Is that dis
covered by the people of Northern Ara
bia and Palestine. after famine caused