The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-22
American Potato Crop
 Should Be Increased
Valuable Lessons May Be Learned From Germany, Where Potatoes Are Used for Making Starch and Al coho1, and Dried, and Kept From Season to Season.

sity from time to time of protecting the American potato industry against the introduction of diseases from for eign countries by quarantine regula- tions places upon the nation the res possibility of producing it's own future supply. This means that the country aust continually produce more pota- toes than 1t needs for home consump-
 tion. The profitable utilization of the surplus so produced is of vital inn portance to the success of the indus try, as is pointed out in Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. AT just is- sued. This bulletin calls the attention of American growers to the fact that they may obtain valuable lessons from Germany whose potato acreage is more than double that of this country and the crop harvested more than four times our total.
 The great problem in this country is how a surplus of potatoes might best be disposed of once the produc- ton has been increased, and if we look to Germany for our lesson we find that their surplus potato crop is used as stock food. for making starch, for the manufacture of alcohol, and for drying. In Germany the potato dry ing industry is the last development in the utilization of surplus potatoes and in one year recently over twelve mill lion bushels were dried in factories. This industry should particularly merit the consideration of our people. Dried potatoes have been fed with complete success, as substitute for corn, not
 only to cattle but to horses as well. E4 To make potato drying a profitable industry in this country. one of the problems to be met would be the ex- pense~ of picking up and delivering to the factory of culls and other potatoes not marketable for table purposes. This Is because of the present cost of Ia,h Tn 17n la bor already IS necessary and is used to remove these cu1ls from the field to- prevent the spread of potato diseases E In Germany the industry has prov ed such a satisfactory solution for talk ing care of the entire surplus crop plant a maximum acreage without fear that their various markets will be over-supplied.
 The feeding of potatoes to swine makes one of the important uses in Germany, and nearly 40 per cent. of that way. It is quite probable that eventually the United States will find a similar use for the American sur plus crop.@ It should be mentioned, however, that the potato is merely one comp Of a carefully planned ra- tion with the German farmers. The potatoes are cooked and mixed with various farm by-products, such as skim milk, barley waste, linseed meal, peanut meal, etc. The quantity of potatoes recoInm ended to be fed dai- sIy to each hog does not exceed 1 o pounds. It is estimated that pota- toes have value of 25 cents per bush eI for direct feeding. The difficulty in American potato districts is that the agriculture is not yet sufficiently di-a versifed ;5 the swine are not there to be fed. This will, however, be over P0 7O a acl fa f3- tices become better organized; then very large quantities of potatoes could be so utilized.
 Potato Starch And Potato Alcohol. We are producing to-day an aver age Of twenty million pounds of po- tato starch annually, and have made large importations from Germany be- sides. This potato starch is prefer red in this country to corn starch for sizing in cotton mills. Economic i'm provernents in the introducing of new factory methods and increasing the quantity of potatoes used should make this industry a. more satisfactory one, At present, the. margin of profit is not large, even with a protective tariff of one cent per pound. Factories are able to run only six weeks in the year which makes the interest and other 1 overhead charges high. The manu- facture is now confined to the utiIiza- ton of cullS and of potatoes partially i infected with tuber-rot. There is a | possibility that method may be worked out for the drying of culls and | surplus potatoes on the farm before l used for starch making.
 The manufacture of alcohol from | potatoes has not yet become estab- 1ished in the United States, as the | price of potatoes marketable for other | purposes has been too high. How eyer, this. method might well help | take care of surplus crop, if such | a surplus were produced in this coun-l try.
 In Germany the price of potatoes for distilling, between 1906 and 1910, | averaged 18.3 cents per bushel. An | indirect benefit from the manufacture of potato alcohol is the feeding value | of the mash left after distillation. 1 With the rapid increase in the use of | direct-combustion engines for autono- piles and other purposes and the de- leunn, it may soon come about that the manufacture of potato alcohol will be a paying industry.
 While these uses for surplus pota- toes are not perhaps Immediately practicable, the fact that Germany has discovered them should assure our farmers that potato growing need not be a speculative enterprise but that l any surplus may be amply cared for, nor need there be any "lean potato years. Baf or the German crop des- tined for stock food, alcohol and starch constitutes an accessible re- serve from which deficiencies in the supply of table potatoes may be filled. l
 Other interesting data on the role of the potato abroad and it's increas- ing importance as an American crop is contained in the bulletin entitled Lessons for American Potato Grow CTS From German Experiences' which may be had upon application to the Division of Publications, U S Department of Agriculture, Washing ton, D. C.
 GuARDING AGAINST GROUP
 The best safeguard against croup