The Vegetable Farm and the Truck Garden 63 
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OTATOF 
ACREAGE 
REPRESENTS 98 0° 
WORLD PRODUCTI. 
8.477.274 000 BUSHELS 
Fic. 48. Potatoes, like corn, are grown on nearly every farm in the United States; but only in 
a few parts are more grown than can be consumed locally. Although the potato is a native of the 
New World, nine tenths of the world’s crop is now grown in Europe. Our hot, dry summers are 
not so favorable for potato growing as the cooler, moister summers of western Europe. In 
Europe, rye and potatoes are grown in much the same belt; they are the poor man’s main crops. 
Outside of North America and Europe, practically no potatoes are grown. 
belt extends from Ireland across northern Europe to eastern Russia. 
In the moist, cool climate of Ireland this vegetable is one of the crops 
that thrive best; hence it is sometimes called the Irish potato. 
Throughout the whole of England, Belgium, and most of Ger- 
many, the production of potatoes per acre is as great as in Aroostook, 
our prize county. In proportion to her population, Germany, the 
greatest of potato countries, raises seven times as many potatoes as 
the United States. Of the twenty-seven bushels per person which 
Germany raises each year on an average, about seven or eight are used 
on the table; ten or more are fed to the pigs, as we feed corn; 
about three are used for potato flakes, flour, and alcohol; while the 
rest are exported. 
Although the potato is an American vegetable, first found by the 
white man more than four hundred years ago in Peru, 90 per cent 
of the world’s crop is now grown in Europe. 
Sweet potatoes. Among the vegetables of the world as a whole, 
the sweet potato stands next to the white potato in commercial im- 
portance. Like its northern companion it can thrive in a sandy soil. 
But, unlike the hardy white potatoes, sweet potatoes do best in a 
warm climate. Hence they are raised throughout the southern 
states. They are most abundant, however, on the sandy plains of 
New Jersey, Delaware, and the eastern shore of Maryland; for 
although the climate there is a little cool for them, the region is near