We, who live in these islands, scarcely understand the potato. We are content to cling tenaciously to the traditions established three hundred years ago. It is estimated that the British farmers lost over £6,000,000--$30,000,000--in handling their 1918 crop owing to the employment of obsolete and wasteful methods. The greater part, if not the whole, of this loss might have been averted had more enlightened methods prevailed concerning the utilization of the tuber. The above-mentioned figure does not take into account the losses suffered from disease and other causes, which must also have amounted to millions sterling. Our system is as pre-historic as many of the agricultural methods practised by the fellaheen in the Land of the Pharaohs. The potatoes are dug and then collected for storage in big clamps. These have to be opened at intervals to allow the contents to be turned over and inspected, to ascertain whether or no latent disease has asserted itself. The potatoes have to be graded and bagged preparatory for market, while there is the formidable item of transport to be considered. Between the harvesting of the crop and its ultimate disposal considerable handling ensues, while the difference in value between the “ware,” or table, potatoes and the “chats,” or those regarded as fit only for the pigs, is also very pronounced. Contrast this method with what would obtain were we to develop the Continental system. After digging and grading the crop the farmer would merely be called upon to convey his harvest to the factory, when all anxiety, so far as he was concerned, would end. The method would be comparable with that pertaining to the handling of the wheat harvest in the great grain-growing countries, where the farmer is merely called upon to gather his grain and to haul it to the elevator. The saving in time and labour alone--two vital factors in these days--would be incalculable, while the risks of loss of crop would be completely obviated.