POTATOES AS WORLD FOOD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 285, 21 August 1918, Page 10

POTATOES AS WORLD FOOD

"WHAT THE GERMANS HAVE DONE The future of tho potato as a |K>ssiblc world food appears likely to bo a big one. Heretofore potatoes have been looked upon as a perishable article and therefore not suited for shipment over long distances. One of tha lessons taught by the war is that .potatooß can be treated so that they occupy less space, may bo kept indefinitely, and still retain their value as a food. Quito recently a lecturo was delivered upon this subject before a class in economics in Now York, to demonstrate the value of tho potato as a world food. The lecturer pointed out that the war had shown it was practicable to so preserve the potato by grinding and drying that it was transferred from the list of local nnd perishable crops to one which might be produced in almost unlimited quantities in certain areas, and distributed to any part of the world. The world's crop of potatoes was given as six million bushels. The new system of turning the potato into a condition in which it can readily be distributed quite naturally developed in Germany, the country that had the largest production of that tuber in lite world. Factories wero established for making potato Hour for man, cakes and cubes i'or animals, or alcohol for chemical industries, or a substitute for petrol. Ten years ago there were a few dozen such factories in Germany. In 1914 tho number increased to 400, and in 191G to 810, with « capacity for dealing with one billion bushels of potatoes per annum. The reduction in weight is about GO per cent, by the drying process, and then the product can be preserved almost indefinitely. Germany produces about two billion bushels of potatoes annually out of the world total of 6ix billion bushels.