OCR Text |
Show LARGE DEMAND ; FOR POTATOES i Market Requirements Stimulating Stimulat-ing Development of Growim . . ., Industry Near City o Chicago. ( Increasing demand for potatoes In , the Chicago market is stimulating the development of the growing in- , dustry in nearby stateB. The demand , all over the country for the tuber, ,. both for local and general domestic use and the export trade, has Increased,, In-creased,, and production Is showing' notable gains. The land in potatoes increased from ' 2,601,000 acres Ii, 1889 to 2,939,000 . acres in 1899 and 3,669,000 acres -in 1909. The acreage in 1909 was thus , about 41 per cent, greater than In 1899. The production of potatoes In 1879 was 169,459,000 bushels, as compared com-pared with 389,195,000 bushels in 1909. The increase in the thirty years was thus nearly 130 per cent. Pop- . ulation during the same period in-creased in-creased about 80 per cent. This is the only important food crop which has increased faster than population. Increases in acreage of potatoes are noted in all the geographic divisions. . The largest actual, increases are found In the two north central dl- , visions, the eastera section showing . an increase of 148,839 acres, or 16.5 , per cent, and the western section an Increase of 146,629 acres, or 23 per cent. A large Increase in acreage Is to be noted in Minnesota. The average production per acre, . perhaps in part by reason of temporary tem-porary weather conditions, increased, from 93 bushels to 106.1 bushels. Along with the increase in acreage and production went an even larger relative increase in the value of the potato crop, which increased from $98,280,000 to $166,424,000, an In-" crease of over $68,000,000, or 69.2 per cent. The average value of potatoes po-tatoes per bushel thus Increased from 36 cents to 43 cents, or about 19 per cent. . |