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Show in quantity, that of any other starch food, the high records of world outturn out-turn having been: potatoes, in 1912, 5,872,000,000 bushels; corn, in 1912, 4,371,000,000; and wheat, in 1915, 4,-198,000,000 4,-198,000,000 bushels. Our own production of potatoes is almost exclusively for home consumption. con-sumption. We export a few million bushels, but only a small percentage of the entire crop, and our imports are also comparatively small. The exports in 1920, the high record year, were about 4 million bushels, and the imports in 1920 about 6 millions. The exports go chiefly to Cuba and smaller quantities to Canada and Mexico, and the imports are chiefly from Canada. Potatoes, as a rule, do not enter largely into international trade; they are chiefly consumed in the country of production. i WORLD POTATO CROP IN 1923 With the 1923 potato crop of the United States reported 10 per cent below that of last year and the Eur-opeon Eur-opeon crop of the current year 20 per cent below last year, the eyes of the world are naturally turning to-,vard to-,vard the potato bin. But the potato situation, says the Trade Rtcord of The National City 3ank of New Y'ork, is not after all ;o serious because it happenes that .he 1922 crop with which we are comparing com-paring the prospective outturn of 1923 was abnormally large and this shortage of 10 or 20 per cent in the j outturn of America and Europe still .eaves the 1923 crop quite up to the average of recent years. In the case of the United States the average crop in the decade ending with 1922 was 378,000,000 bushels, while the estimate of the Department of Agriculture Ag-riculture is for 390,000,000 in the calendar year 1923. Our crop of 1922, ioO, 000,000 bushels, was the "biggest jver." In Europe, exclusive of Russia Rus-sia for which no figures are yet vailable, the crop of 1922, according accord-ing to figures of the Rome International Inter-national Institute of AgricultuVe, was 4,682,000,000 bushels against a little less than 3,000,000,000 in 1921, and while the partial reports from the principal European countries in 1923 show a slight reduction, it is quite apparent that the European .otal for 1923 will be materially greater than that of 1921, even .hough it should fall 20 per cent be-ow be-ow the abnormally high year, 1922. The term "abnormally high year" -.pplies only to that section of Europe or which official figures are available, avail-able, for the world is still lacking information in-formation about the crop of Russia, which was prior to the war a very 'arge producers of potatoes. Curiously, adds the Trade Record, ;he birthplace of the potato, South America, is now one of the world's smallest producers of that important factor in world food supply. Prior lo the war the world's biggost producers pro-ducers were, in the order of magnitude magni-tude of production, Germany, Russia, France, Austria, and the United States, and even at the present time lespite the post-war boundary changes chang-es in Europe, the relation as to the production of the respective countries coun-tries stands about the same, the latest lat-est figures putting the 1922 outturn of Germany at 1,494,000,000 bushels, Poland, 1,200,000,000, France 405,-000,000, 405,-000,000, the United States 451,000,-000, 451,000,-000, with no available figures for Ilusai for any year later than 11116. The big potato production of northern north-ern Europe is due to the fact that it supplies a larger amount of food per acre than do wheat of corn. The . pro-war potato crop of Europe was said to exceed in both quantity and value the recorded wheat crop of the entire world. j Of course, the world's potato crop j was matorialy reduced during the war in view of the fact that the chief! military activities occurred in the great potato producing section of Europe which supplied in normal times considerably more than three-fourths three-fourths of the potatoes of the world. The world's record of potato outturn out-turn fell from 5,872,000,000 bushels in 1912 to less than 3,000,000,000 during dur-ing the most active period of the war, but again crossed the 5 billion line in 1922, the total world outturn of that year, exclusive of Russia, having been 514 billion bushels against the world's highest record, I hat of 1912, 5,573,000,000. The world's potato crop slightly exceeds, |
