Show I 1 agriculture s I 1 IN INDUSTRY 5 by florence C weed j 2 this is one of a series of articles showing how bow farm products are finding an air important market in industry irish potatoes the lowly spud takes many forms besides being mashed boiled and fried in maine alone an average of bushels go into starch most of this is used for sizing the fine count warp threads in the cotton textile industry in 1934 a peak of bushels were used for starch much of the high grade edible starch was imported before the recent ent war and new factories are being built in this country to improve the quality of the american product there is no doubt but that the present chaotic conditions of the world have helped the united states to become more self sufficient in the calico printing industry our domestic starch is now being used in place of a foreign import one plant in the united states is making nitro starch an explosive which is made extensively in europe in maine experiments are under way to use the potato in making plastic compounds so far the idea is still in the laboratory stage but chemists believe that the potato may have a future in this field such an outlet would use profitably the culls and second grade potatoes which are usually wasted another use of the potato so far not tried here is the making of fuel alcohol as a substitute for gasoline and kerosene it was developed first in germany no crop produces as much food per acre as the prolific potato plant where yields of to bushels are common the leading potato growing sections are Aro county maine long island new york the eastern shore of virginia red river valley vallea of minnesota and southern idaho maine produces about one seventh of the 45 bushel crop annually |