has produced potatoes which yield fifty per cent. of starch instead
of twenty-five per cent. The United States uses about $12,000,000
worth of starch every year, chiefly obtained from Indian corn and
potatoes. When the potato is made to yield double the amount of starch,
as Burbank has proved it can yield and more, it will be understood
what a large part it can be made to play in this important manufacture.

Also for the production of alcohol the potato is gaining a prominent
place. The potato starch is converted into maltose by the diastase of
malt, the maltose being easily acted upon by ferment for the actual
production of the alcohol. Therefore an increase in the starch of the
potato for this purpose alone is much to be desired.

Of course the chief prominence of the potato will still consist in its
adaptability as an article of food. Burbank does not overlook this.
He has produced and is producing potatoes with better flavor, of larger
and uniform size and which give a much greater yield to the area.
Palatability in the end decides the permanence of a food, and the
Burbank productions possess this quality in a high degree.

Burbank labored long and studied every characteristic of the potato
before attempting any experiments with the tomato. Though closely
related by family ties, the potato and the tomato seemed to have no
affinity for each other whatever. In many other instances it has also
been found that two varieties which from a certain relation might
naturally be expected to amalgamate easily have been repellant to each
other and refused to unite.

In his first experiment in trying to cross the potato and tomato,
Burbank produced tomatoes from the seeds of plants pollenated from