The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-02-10
POTATO GROWING IN EUROPE
BY EUGENE H. GRUBB

Idlh 6iNCu Wy MI. =. H. HIuuU ou
Potato Growing in Europe" before
the farmers Short Course, held In
Twin Falls, Idaho, Saturday, January
2Sth, 1911. Mr.. Grub has recently
spent seven months in foreign coun-
tries studying the methods of potato
growing in the interest of the United
States government.
In part he said: "As l look at
farm institute work and hear dis
cussion, have realized that your
educators cannot teach you anything.
They can only give you ideas and
thoughts to work out on your own
individual cases and environments
and conditions, no two of which are
alike.
In Europe l do not remember of
two incidents where the same rota.
tion or the same combination of
fertilizers We're used, even TN ad-
joining farms. Every farmer that l
found had formulate of commercial
fertilizer that were all different in
measure and every one of them
with the results of his own determ-
ination. Not nearly so much stress
was laid upon the chemical analysis
as you have been discussing, on soils,
as 1t was by years and years of diff
erent combination of fertilizers and
crop rotation. They laid much stress
on the feeding of all their coarse
products on the farm, and conserved
the manure in various ways. | have
seen feed lots where cattle were
being fed where you could take a
rake and push it down six, eight, ten
and twelve feet through well-rotted
barnyard muck, where roots, ETC.,
have been fed. All of the liquid
maure is conserved everywhere over
Europe. There is no waste for or
ganic matter. Not until we adopt
those methods will we have scientific
ad profitable agriculture in America
until we return everything we can
and keep up that fertility. They
feed their soils for their crops just
like they feed their livestock. They
return to the soil all of the constitu-
ents they extract from it i. Their
combinations of nitrogen, ammonia,
potash and phosphorus has been
worked out by so to 100 years of
demonstration.
"Inall of their work in potato
growing, one factor is just as import
ant as another-their growing of
seedg potatoes, storage, care, soil
work, fertility, crop, rotation, cult
walton and marketing. One firm
alone stores $4,000 bushels annually
OF seed in crates in 10000 boxes,
stored in glass-walled and glass
rooted houses.
Il found not one single grower in
Europe who planted cut seed-abso-
lutely planted whole seed. The gen.
eral average is ton of seed per
acre, 224O English pounds. They
grow their potatoes closer together
over their.
I'm Europe | found no soils but
what were successfully fitted for POI
tato growing. | found no farm in
Great Britain or Germany but what
could grow potatoes successfully and
profitably on every kind of soil from
a soil that was so light and drifting
that the land between the rows are
matched with straw to keep the wind
from blowing the sand away. In
the north of Germany they move the
sand from the heather beds to the
peat beds by rail, and thus make
their soils productive.
'They do not use improved i'm
plements over there 1t is nearly
all hand labor. A laborer gets
pound week, or $500, and boards
himself. Some of them have to pay
out of this pound an income tax of
FAC to the government. That is the
difference between free trade and
protection to America"
You will have to feed up your
hay and grain and roots and waste
potatoes. In Europe I saw them
paying $7.75 per ton for waste pota-
toes to feed bullocks and hogs.
1T will not be many years before
we see potato factories here for the
manufacture of our small potatoes
waste potatoes, and it will not be
many years before you will be grow
ing potatoes for the making of spir-
its, flour and glucose. exclusively.
The spirit from potatoes controls the
price of gasoline in Europe.
I'm the Channel islands $1,000. 90
worth Of potatoes were produced on
four acres. That land rented for
$4,000 per acre. If that land was