The potato

Front matter

Jft, 1f Hbs«*'

»1 enceoenes auev Editm

Twain**

Preface

This book is intended to give brief and practical suggestions on the growing, breeding and marketing of potatoes. It is written especially for the practical farmer and the student who may wish concise information on the potato without having to read many miscellaneous sources of information, especially experiment station bulletins which, although highly valuable, are likely to contain much detail.

The chapters on breeding and varieties occupy an unusually large proportion of the book. This is for the reason that these subjects have been treated in potato literature much less than methods of culture, and the general interest in them has called for this extended discussion to meet not only the necessities of the case but also the public demand.

I have been glad to place in the hands of Doctor Barrus and Mr. Dean the chapters on Diseases and Field Methods respectively. These men have had broad experience in their lines and are thoroughly competent to discuss them.

The author wishes, also, to acknowledge the valuable aid of Professor Herrick in reading the manuscript on Potato Insects, and Mr. A. C. Fraser and Mr. J. J. Pollock for valuable assistance.

ARTHUR W. GILBERT.

Ithaca, New York, January, 1917.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGES

I. Acreage, Distribution, Production and Valuation 1-13

II. History 14-20

Chapter I Acreage, Distribution, Production And Valuation

The potato is one of the most widel y cultiva ted of the agricultural plants. The esculent tubers, which are developed underground on slender leafless shoots or stems, are used for food and also industrially. The plant is allied botanically to several powerful narcotics, such as tobacco, henbane and belladonna, and also to the tomato, eggplant and capsicum.

The potato comprises about 25 per cent of the food of European and English-speaking peoples. Only the Oriental peoples exist without it. A greater weight of potatoes can be produced to a unit area than any other food crop. '

The yield in millions of tons of the world's most important plants is shown in the following table :

Table I. — World's Crops of the Most Important Food Plants, in Million Tons. Average for 5 Years, 1908- 1912

Wheat 106.0

Oats 65.6

Barley 33.41

1 This figure does not represent the rice crop of the world, as statistics from certain sections of China are lacking. B 1

The average annual production of potatoes in the world for the last ten years has been over 5,000,000,000 bushels. The production of wheat, corn and oats has been approximately 4,000,000,000 bushels each. Potatoes, therefore, lead the other crops in total production.

This immense total world production is generally and widely distributed. The six leading countries and their average annual production for the years 1911-1913, and the average yields an acre for the years 1904-1913, are as follows (see Fig. 1) :

Table II

Germany . .

European Russia Austria-Hungary France . . .

United States .

United Kingdom

Total Production in Bushels

Average Yield an Acre in Bushels

About 90 per cent of the world's crop is grown in Europe, Germany and Russia producing more than half of the total crop. The United States produces only about one-fifth as much as Germany. This is largely due to the fact that the German consumption per capita is about two and one-half times as great as ours, and that more than 50 per cent of the German crop is used either for stock food or for conversion into starch, alcohol or other industrial by-products. Potatoes, at present, are used very little for these purposes in this country, less than 1 per cent being so employed.

Table III. — Percentage of World's Potato Crop : Produced by the Continents, and Principal Potato-producing Countries. For the Years 1908-1912

Continents

Bushels

Per Cent World's Crop

Europe . . .

North America Asia ....

South America Australia .

Africa .

,817,830,200

425,239,800

54,329,000

38,931,000

13,813,600

4,793,200

89.72

7.92

1.01

.73

.26

.09

Principal Countries

Total Bushels

1908-1912,

World's Crop

Germany .

Russia . . . .

Austria-Hungary France . . . .

United States

1,624,801,000

1,209,513,400

664,538,200

514,542,200

346,119,200

30.25

22.52

12.39

9.58

6.45

The cultivation of the potato is now extended over most of the agricultural sections of the United States and Canada and it is becoming increasingly important as an article of human food in this country. It ranks sixth in agricultural importance in the United States.

Table IV. — Relative Value of Crops in the United States in Dollars (1908-1912)

1 Average of world's crop for 1908-1912 = 5,369,590,000 bushels.

The following table illustrates graphically the distribution of potato-growing in the United States (see Fig. 2).

In the United States, New York has led in potato production for the last twenty-five years. The leading states and yield to the acre are as follows : 1

Table V

State

Production in Millions of

Bu8HEL8,

1911-1915

Yield to

Avehaoe Price a Bubhel, 1906-1915

Centn

New York

33.35

Michigan

33.27

32.80

Minnesota

30.04

25.67

Pennsylvania ....

23.13

In the last few years, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine and Minnesota have been rapidly gaining in production, and are now all close rivals of New York.

For the ten years 1902-1911 inclusive, an average of 3,230,000 acres was devoted to the potato crop in the United States, from which 304,158,000 bushels were produced, worth $177,503,000. This comprises only about one-sixth of the world's crop.

Ten states along the northern border, where the climate is cooler and the crop is supplied with more moisture, produced nearly two-thirds of the potato crop of the United States (see Figs. 3 and 4). Potatoes are grown, however, in more or less quantity in every state of the Union.

As the agriculture in the United States becomes more

1 After Montgomery.

stable and railroad facilities develop, there Is more

oi a for farm crops to he intensively

n in certain areas where soil, climate and other factorare best suited to them. This is especially true of a crop like corn -.. rheat which Is neither perishable" nor very bulky and can be easily shipped. This is becoming

Fig. 3. Pe r .ich is

iced in eael . 2-1911.

increasingly true of potatoes because of their bulk. and partial perishables

Most of the potatoes raised in the United States are still grov •.-. ash crop in relatively small parcels on

many farms. There is a 1 however, toward the

■ : pol ■ -. ing centers in widely rated of the Unite. State By a careful inspec-

tion of the map on page 6' one ee that thee

are located in Aroostook Count;/, Maine, the Xorfok.

an Shore trucking s of Virginia and Mar viand, the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dal the Ka.7,- Valley of Kansas,, the Greely and Carbondale districts v Colorado and the San Joaquin and Sacramento valley I ( alifornia.

MILLIONS OF BUSHELS

MEW YORK

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

PENNSYLVANIA

OHIO

IOWA

ILLINOIS

COLORAOO

CALIFORNIA

INDIANA

VIRGINIA

NEBRASKA

NEW JERSEY

MISSOURI

WASHINGTON

KANSAS

NORTH OAKOTA

KENTUCKY

OREGON

IDAHO

VERMONT

WEST VIRGINIA

MARYLAND

SOUTH DAKOTA

MONTANA

MASSACHUSETTS

TENNESSEE

CONNECTICUT

UTAH

NORTH CAROLINA

NEW HAMPSHIRE

TEXAS

ARKANSAS

OKLAHOMA

LOUISIANA

ALABAMA

| 1909 2 1899

Fig 4. Production of potatoes in the different states, 1909 and 1899.

The following tables from the thirteenth census indicate the total number of farms in certain states where potatoes were grown, the total yield and the total amount to each farm. The latter figure shows that the total production on most farms is in excess of the family consumption :

Table VI

State

County

Bushels to a

Farm

County

Bushels

TO A

Farm

County

Bushels

TO A

Farm

Mass.

Berkshire

128.5

Hampshire

112.3

Hampden

119.9

Vt.

Bennington

169.2

Chittenden

154.5

Addison

116.1

N. J.

Salem

636.8

Monmouth

643.8

Gloucester

389.1

Del.

Kent

44.3

New Castle

83.8

Sussex

101.4

W. Va.

Jackson

42.9

Wood

48.1

Preston

43.4

S. C.

Beaufort

39.9

Charleston

33.0

Colleton

29.4

Ga.

Chatham

189.4

Thomas

9.7

Union

11.0

Fla.

St. John

183.4

Hillsboro

22.1

Gadsden

13.7

Cook

161.7

Madison

188.6

St. Clair

260.9 la.

Blackhawk

92.5

Grundy

489.8

Scott

358.5

Mo.

St. Louis

167.2

Buchanan

127.9

Ray

135.6

Neb.

Sioux

134.5

Douglass

134.2

Cherry

68.6

Ky.

Jefferson

386.5

Pike

25.0

Campbell

98.9

Ala.

Mobile

109.7

Jefferson

20.9

Dallas

3.8

Tex.

Harris

58.7

Cherokee

32.0

Cass

15.3

Wash.

Yakima

365.5

King

203.4

Pierce

166.7

Id.

Ada

89.6

Bingham

802.4

Lincoln

120.7

/v.y i

Af/ctf, i W/5. I AW/V£-| us.

2.65%

2-7/ %

Fig. 5. Percentage of the improved farm land that was annually planted to potatoes in the ten leading states of the United States, 1902-1911.

Table VII

State

Number of Farms

Total Yield

Amount to a Farm

Yield to the Acre prom Yearbook, 1914

Northern States

Massachusetts Vermont . .

New Jersey

2,946,178 4,145,630

8,057,424

Southern States

Delaware . .

West Virginia South Carolina Georgia . . .

Florida . . .

10,836

96,685

176,434

291,027

50,016

81.2

42.1

4.4

3.1

17.1

96 98 85 81 95

Northern Central States East of the Mississippi River

Ohio

Illinois

93 91

Northern Central States West of the Mississippi River

Missouri

Nebraska

217,044

277,244 129,678

67.7 20.8 62.5

85 78

Southern Central States

Kentucky

Alabama

Texas

19.7 4.2 5.3

92 80 50

Far Western States

Montana

Washington ....

Idaho

26,214 56,192 30,807

It is not easy to determine the amount of the family consumption of potatoes. It varies with different regions. In a survey of 483 farm families quite widely scattered, Funk found the average quantities and values of Irish potatoes consumed annually to a person in the following table :

Table VIII

State

Irish Potatoes

Bushels

Value

North Carolina

Georgia .

$2.13 2.32

Texas

3.24

Ohio

New York

Vermont

5.7

$3.45

The average, it will be seen, was 5.7 bushels to a person. In the same survey was found an average of 4.6 persons in the family, making a total of 26.22 bushels of potatoes consumed to a family. Warren l gives the average quantity of potatoes raised on the farm and used in the house on 106 farms in Livingston County, New York, in 1909 as 50.3 bushels and the average amount to an individual as 10.1 bushels. This is much higher than the figures Funk obtained in his survey, but even at this high figure, it is clearly seen that most farmers have at least a few bushels of potatoes to sell.

In a farm management survey of Chester County, Pennsylvania, by Spillman * it was found that the proportion of income from potatoes on 378 farms in that county was 8.9 per cent. On these farms, 6 per cent of the crop area was devoted to potatoes. "They were found on 366 of the 378 farms operated by owners. This crop is, therefore, very general in this region, though the acreage of potatoes is usually small. On only seven farms was the percentage of potato acreage found to exceed 20 (or 12 acres)." The farmers of this region grow at least enough for home use and usually some for sale.

The yields to the acre are dependent upon many factors, the most important of which seem to be climate and soil moisture. Yields to the acre in the United States are low as compared with England or Germany. The average yields of potatoes to the acre for the years 1901-1910 inclusive in the United States, Germany and Great Britain were 92.7, 200.8 and 200 respectively. European countries often grow the large, coarse, heavyyielding sorts for stock-feeding or for use in the arts, which accounts for some of the difference in average yields.

In the United States, the average yield to the acre is higher in Maine than in any other state. The average yield in the other states is usually 90 bushels or less.

Very large yields in the United States, however, are not unheard of. A yield of 700 bushels to the acre in Maine and the other potato-producing areas is not uncommon in very favorable^ seasons. Macoun, in speaking of the possibilities of the potato, makes note of the highest recorded yield of potatoes in this country. These were grown by Mrs. Selinda E. Jones of Chautauqua

1 Spillman, Dixon and Billings. "Farm Management Practice of Chester Co., Pa.," p. 26.

County, New York, in the Women's National Potato Contest of 1888. She grew the White Elephant variety on one-twentieth of an acre at the rate of 1061 bushels to the acre.

In the United States the average yield of potatoes from one plant is about one-half pound. Some plants of Early Ohio have been known to yield thirteen tubers weighing 2| pounds, and others of the same variety to produce three tubers weighing \ an ounce. The former yield is 80 times the latter. Some English experiments have produced twenty pounds of tubers to a plant, as many as 150 tubers being set on one plant.

The climate of Canada is well suited to the production of potatoes. The cool summers produce a yield to the acre that compares very favorably with the best regions of the United States. The average number of acres devoted to this crop for the years 1910-13 was 476,000, upon which an average yield of 152.46 bushels to the acre was secured, making an average total yield for the four years of 72,569,000 bushels.

In the five fiscal years 1910-14, Canada exported an average of 1,451,990 bushels of potatoes each year, of which 376,406 bushels were sent to the United States.

Chapter II History

The early history of the potato is a matter of some doubt among historians, but all are agreed that it came originally from the high lands of Peru and Chile, where it is still found growing wild.

The Spaniards first discovered the potato in the neighborhood of Quito, Ecuador, where it was cultivated by the natives. According to Pedro Cieca de Leon, who seems to have made first written mention of the potato in his "Spanish Chronicles of Peru" (1550), the inhabitants subsisted largely on maize and what they called "papas" and "quinua." The former is the Indian name for potato and the latter "is a plant about the height of a man and has leaves like the blite of Mauritania, and a small seed either red or white in color, from which is prepared a drink, and a food comparable to our rice."

Potatoes were used by the aborigines in place of bread, and were also dried in the sun to preserve them. They were usually cooked, but often made into flour. There was evidence of long-continued practice of cultivation, however crude. The potato, however, was and still is wild in the mountainous regions of Chile and Peru.

The potato was probably carried to Spain by explorers in the sixteenth century. There is no definite record of this first importation, but Rose believes that it was as

History 15

early as 1533 or 1535, at the time of the conquest of Peru by the Spaniards. Hieronymus Cardan, a monk, is supposed to have been the first to introduce it from Peru into Spain, and from thence it passed quickly into Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and France. The first figures and detailed description of it in its new home in continental Europe are those of Clusius in 1601 in his " Rariorum Plantarum Historia," although Bauhin in his " Phytopinax," printed in Basel in 1596, described it and gave it the Latin name or characterization, Solanum tuberosum esculentum.. (See Plate I.)

The date and method of introduction of the potato into North America are not definitely known, but it was probably introduced by Spanish voyagers and at sometime before 1585, for it is clearly recorded that its first introduction was made into England by colonists from Virginia in 1586 under the patronage of Sir Walter Raleigh.

"It seems to me most likely," says De Candolle, "that some inhabitants of Virginia — perhaps English colonists — received tubers from Spanish or other travelers, traders or adventurers, during the ninety years which had elapsed since the discovery of America. Evidently, dating from the conquest of Peru and Chile, in 1535 to 1585, many vessels could have carried tubers of the potato as provisions, and Sir Walter Raleigh, making war on the Spaniards as a privateer, may have pillaged some vessel which contained them. This is the less improbable, since the Spaniards had introduced the plant into Europe before 1585."

At the discovery of America, we are told by Humboldt, the plant was cultivated in parts of western South America from Chile to Colombia but not in Mexico, and there is n<> account of its being found wild in other parts of North America.

From 15X5 or 1586, potato tubers were brought from what is now North Carolina to Ireland on the return of the colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, and were first cultivated on Sir Walter's estate near Cork. This was some years later than, their introduction into continental Europe.

In l()29, Parkinson in his " Paradisus," in which he gives an indifferent figure of the potato under the name of Papas seu Battatas Virginianorum, adds details as to the method of cooking the tubers which seems to indicate that they were still luxuries.

The cultivation of the potato in England made little progress for many years. It is said that in, the time of .lame; the First, they were so rare as to cost two shillings a, pound, and are mentioned in 1019 among the articles provided for the royal household. In 1 633, when their valuable properties had become more generally known, they were deemed worthy of notice by the Royal Society, which took measures to encourage their cultivation and for introduction into Ireland, especially as a safeguard against famine, but their cultivation has become general only within the last one hundred years.

John Gerard received souk; tubers of the potato from Virginia, and planted them in his garden. He gave a careful description of them in his "Herbal," the first edition of which was published in London, in 1597. In a later edition (1636) he pictures them by means of a woodcut (see Fig. 6). He was so proud of these plants that he was represented in his portrait at the beginning of the work holding a flowering branch of the plant in his hand.

History

It should be noticed how closely the description of the potato at this early date corresponds with the plant as grown to-day. He says: "Virginia potato hath many hollow, flexible branches trailing upon the ground ; these are square, uneven, knotted or kneed in sundry places at certaine distan'-' : from the which knots Cometh forth one great leafe made of divers leaves, some smaller arid other greater, set together upon a fat middle rib by couples, of a swart green colour tending to redness ; the v/ hole leaf resembling those of the Winter-Cresses, but much larger ; in taste at the first like grasse, but afterwards sharp and nipping the tongue.

Prom the bosorne of which leaves come forth long round slender foot stalkes, whereon grew very faire and pleasant floures, made of one entire whole leafe, which is fold'-' I or plaited in such strange sort, that it seems to be a floure made of five sundry small leaves, which cannot easily be c

Fia. ''>■ Copy of the engraving of the Virginian potato i" Gerard's "Herbal" — printed in 1636 perceived, except the same be pulled open. The whole floure is of a light purple colour, striped downe the middle of every fold or welt with a light show of yellownesse, as if purple and yellow were mixed together. In the middle of the floure thrusteth forth a thicke flat point all yellow as gold, with a small sharpe greene pricke or point in the midst thereof. The fruit succeeds the floures, round as a ball, of the bigness of a little Bullesse or wild plumme, green at first, and blacke when it is ripe, wherein is contained small white seed lesser than those of mustard; the root is thick, fat, and tuberous, not much differing either in shape, colour or taste from the common potatoes, saving that the roots hereof are not so great nor long; some of them are as round as a ball, some oval or eggefashion, some longer and others shorter; the knobby roots are fastened unto the stalkes with an infinite number of threddy strings. It groweth naturally in Americus where it was first discovered, as reporteth Clusia, since which time I have received roots hereof from Virginia, otherwise called Norembega, which grow and prosper in my garden as in their own native country. The leaves thrust forth on the ground in the beginning of May ; the floures bud forth in August, the fruit is ripe in September. The Indians call this plant pappas, meaning roots, by which name also the common potatoes are called in those Indian countries. We have its proper name mentioned in the title 'Potatoes of Virginia.' Because it hath not only the shape and proportion of potatoes but also the pleasant taste and vertues of the same, we may call it in English, Potatoes of America or Virginia."

In 1769, the grain crops of France were a failure, threatening a national famine. Parmentier, a Parisian chemist, recommended the use of potatoes as food to take the

Plate I. — The potato as first grown in Europe.

History 19

place of the grain crops. He had been a member of the medical staff of the French army in 1758, during the war in Hanover, and had been taken prisoner. During his five years in prison his principal food consisted of potatoes, which were then grown almost exclusively as food for animals. The dire need of food in France inspired him to write a book called a "Treatise on Certain Vegetables that in Times of Necessity can be substituted for Ordinary Food." This book was received with ridicule even though it received a certain amount of support from the Paris Agricultural Society. By persistent efforts, Parmentier was granted a small patch of land on which to experiment with his potatoes. The king ordered the plot to be guarded by a cordon of troops which excited the curiosity of the people. On August 24th, the king's fete-day, he presented the king with a basket of tubers and a bouquet of the blossoms. These were worn by the king and queen, who also ate the cooked tubers. They were found to be very palatable and soon became one of the foods of the French people.

During the seventeenth century, the potato gradually became, from a botanical curiosity cultivated only by collectors of new plants, one of the staple garden and field crops. Its cultivation as a field crop became somewhat common in Germany soon after 1772, when the grain crops failed and potatoes were used as a substitute. The quality was very poor, however, and even though they were enormously productive, their use was restricted largely as food for domestic animals and they were used as human food only when necessary as a substitute. By the latter half of the eighteenth century, it was extensively cultivated and recognized as one of the regular crops throughout the temperate regions of Europe and

America, so that Henry Phillips (1822), who published a detailed account of the potato and its culture, was able to cite a single grower who planted 300 acres annually.

In Ireland, they were used very extensively as human food. By 1840 they had largely replaced the cereals and similar food crops because their yield in weight exceeded by twenty to thirty times the yield of wheat, barley or oats on an equal amount of land. Dependence upon a single crop for food, however, became disastrous for the Irish. The potato blight which appeared in the United States in 1845 devastated Ireland in 1846 and caused a widespread famine. It is conservatively estimated that 600,000 persons died during the two years 1846 and 1847 for want of food or from diseases caused by a meager diet of unhealthy and unnutritious food. By 1848 the plague had practically ceased.

Campbell, W. H. W. The Father of the Potato. Cosmopolitan,

De Candolle, Alphonse. Origin of Cultivated Plants. 1-468,

N. Y., 1892.

Del'Ecluse (orCLUSius). Rariorum Plantarum Historiae, 1601, lib. Gerard. Herbal. 1597, p. 781, with illustration. Heckel, E. The Origin of the Cultivated Varieties of the Potato.

Rev. Sci. (Paris), 50: 1912, II, No. 21, pp. 641-646. Henslow, Geo. The Origin and History of Our Garden Vegetables

and Their Dietetic Values. II. Roots + tubers (cont.).

121* (1910-1911).

Rose, Ernest. Histoire de la pomme de terre traitee aux points de

vue historique, cultural et utilitaire. 1-464 Par. 1898. Sabine, J. On the Native Country of the Wild Potatoes. Trans.

Hort. Soc. London, Vol. V, pp. 249-259. 1824.