GLUT OF POTATOES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 593, 17 December 1920, Page 4

GLUT OF POTATOES.

HOW GERMANY DEALS WITH

THEM.

The September issue of Chambers' Journal contains an interesting article which explains how the problem of dealing with the glut of potatoes has been solved in Germany, where 54,000,000 tons are raised annually. Owing to the low prices offered for potatoes, the agrarian interests were; forced to attack the question from motives of self-preservation. The successful drying of beet pulp after the sugar has been extracted, thereby enabling the material to be kept indefinitely for stock-feeding purposes, suggested an examination of the feasibility of applying similar methods to the potato. These investigations were carried out, and as a result two simple methods were evolved, perfected, and brought into operation. It was quickly found that drying did not adversely affect the composition of the potato, and that the dried tuber, besides being valuable stock food, was a first-class raw material for products such as :>tarch, "farina," glucose, dextrine, alcohol, etc ? Before the war fully 500 potato drying factories wese established. The outlook was improved by a new process evolved by an English inventor, the salient characteristics of which is its variability, which permits one or other product being exploited according to the conditions of the market. This will tend to steady the price pjfid to the farmer for the raw material, and encourage him to devote increased attention to the cultivation of the potato, and to improve the yield by raising more prolific varieties by having more liberal recourse to fertilising.