The Sauk Centre herald., 1916-08-24
JUST SPUDS

tleS OF waving WneaC, Cne SlOTleS VI
golden corn, extolled the products OF
the orchard and the fruit of the vine
but all of them have overlooked the
humble spud and it is the worthiest
theme of them all for song or story
There is more romance connected
with the origin, introduction and use
of the potato than any other article
of human diet. =.
The great American epic food poem
yet remains to be written and it's sub
ject will be spuds.
AS no one else seems to take any
interest in the subject we think we
will attend to the matter of writing it
ourselves. We have already compos-
ed the first stanza:
Let them sing of the corn, the rye and
the wheat;
We sing of theme that is greater,
OF the commoners' food, what the
toilers eat,
The simple old-fashioned pertator.
When our muse gets into working
order again we will write some more
verses, but we think this is all our
readers will be able to stand at one
time.
The most universal of all human
foods is the potato. 1t is served in
the cabin of the peasant and in the
palace of the king.
1t is the single article of food whose
flavor cannot be enhanced by sauces
and condiments.
Sailors on long Arctic voyages, ex-
plorers in tropical countries, civilized
men in savage lands yearn more for
spuds than for any other article of
diet. 1t is the one vegetable food
that never clogs the appetite, and for
which no satisfying substitute has
ever been discovered.
1t is one of the surest crops grown
upon the farm. A given area planted
to spuds will produce greater
amount of nutritious human food than
il planted to any other grain or vege-
table.
Spuds are the support-bulwark of
some of our greatest nations and in
stitutions
The failure of the potato crop in
Ireland would mean suffering, fam
Inc, starvation and death.
Were it not for Germany's mex
haustible supply of spud-food, grown
by its old men, women and children, in
every nook and corner of that mighty
empire, the Allies would be able to
crush the Teutons in six weeks and
they would be in Berlin inside of six
months. The Kaiser's supremacy does
not consist so much in his men, arms,
ammunition and ships of war as it
does in his unlimited supply of spuds.
A curious fact connected with the
potato is, that although America gave
the world corn, tobacco and spuds and
the first two have been exploited for
centuries, until comparatively recent
times has the potato been scarcely
considered as an article of CONNER
'cial Importance.
1t is not so many years ago that
none of the great eastern or southern
cities ever thought of depending up
on the domestic market for their po-
tato supply but depended wholly up
on imports, and to an unbelievable
extent this condition still exists.
The country is just beginning to
awake to the Importance of potato
growing and no branch of farm indus
try has made such remarkable in
crease in the last ten years.
Minnesota, generally in the van Of
progress, was among the last to
awake to this undeveloped source Of
farm wealth and many localities are
still asleep to its true value.
We can well remember when farm
er coming to his market town on
full load of spuds would have been a
novel sight indeed, but last fall in
little country town in Anoka county
we saw string of teams fully a mile
long loaded with the finest succulent
tubers awaiting their turn to unload.
The potato crop of Minnesota for
1916 will amount to more than fiji
teen million dollars in value.
1t costs no more, by modern me-
thods of culture, except for the seed
and market transportation, to grow
an acre of potatoes than it does an
acre of corn and the average dollar re-
turn per acre is three times greater.
The best corn lands in the Iowa and
Illinois belt sell readily for $500 per
acre. The best lands in the Minnesota
potato belt can be bought for one
third of that amount. The corn grow
ers have been called the princes
among farmers; in the near future
the potato growers will be denominat-
ed the kings.
The entire Sauk Valley is an ideal
potato patch. Early settlers will re-
member the profusion of wild pota-
toes and artichokes that grew in all
its prairie patches. These plants are
Natures sign-board proclamation of
the official home of the cultivated
spud.
The potato yield in this region if
properly cultivated is amazing. We