POTATO SPIRIT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1749, 13 September 1905, Page 59

POTATO SPIRIT

There seems to be a great future yet in store for potato growing, and the boom is not yet likely to come to an end, and for several reasons. Notwithstanding the large quantity of potatoes grown in Britain, the returns show that there are more than five times as many tons produced in Germany. There is, of course, a great deal more food produced on an acre of potatoes than there is on an acre of wheat, and if ever a. war and a blockade reduced our supply of com we have an enormous reserve of food in the shape of our potato crop.—a fact apparently lost sight of by those who want, national granaries in which to store wheat. Apart from this, however, there is a great future before potato-growing in the matter of producing potato spirit. The development, of the motor industry has been followed on the Continent with a development of the manufacture of a cheap, coarse alcohol, to drive those motors, and for this purpose thousands of tons (possibly millions) of potatoes are giown. in Germany and on the Continent generally, and we cannot doubt but that we will have the same industry developed here. Whatever the price may be, everything points to there being a big demand in the near future for. potatoes for this purpose. There is no information yet to hand as to which would be the best potato for spirit-producing uses, but as alcohol is usually derived from the fermentation of starch (or sugar) in plants, then one would expect the starchiest tubers to be the best for the purpose. It. is probable that the best potatoes for cooking may not be the best for distillation purposes, as one would expect, to find some of the coarse, prolific, hardy varieties to be more desirable in this respect. This point will probably be the subject of experiment when the time is ripe, but meantime potato growers need not lose heart should there be a. glut in the market, for the growing of them, will become more and more important, as time goes on. In former times a crop of 6 to 8 tons per acre was considered fair, but nowadays, from a long course of selection and development on the part of growers, from the practice of sprouting in boxes, and from more skilful manuring, double these weights are quite common, so that the reduction in price and the greater expenses of cultivation axe partly met by the greater crops, and more acres will be wanted in future.