The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1881-12-28
CONNIE RCIAL.

business is practically dead until
the holiday excitement subsidies. The
wholesale houses are having a slack
time, while retailers are ditto. All
markets are comparatively dull and
nominal, and no change may be looked
for under ten days, and even then the
t&pering process will bequite noticeable.
"A New York commission house,
engaged extenG;vely in the handling
of potatoes, said recently when
questioned: I'VE introduced the Scotch
potato in this market. All these potatoes
you see in sacks here are from Scotland.
We do an export business in fruit, and
five years ago my partner was out in
Scotland, attending to our interests in
that direction. The potato crop here
was very light, and [ wrote to him to
see whether there would not be some
profit in buying lot of Scotch potatoes
and shipping them TO me. He shipped
some, and sold them for 50 and $3.50 d
barrel, making very handsome profit.
Two years ago the crop was light here,
and we got some more Scotch potatoes
and did well with them, and now 1 IN
derstand others are going into the bust
ness. We had one hundred tons on the
now on the way, besides 1000 tons that
are to come. [ have already sold some
ahead for . so barrel. | sold some of
hundred and siXty-ffve pounds, and I
have sold some in the past as low as 81,
but they were not good.
THE steamship companies, in one or
two instances, tried the experiment of
l., J.
pay freight, but not being III the bus-
ness they made mess of it. [ under
stand also that part of the lot of 800 tons
on the 'Anchoria' was composed of ship
ments by outsiders, and their potatoes
were sold at auction and fetched only
sixty cents and from that up to eighty
cents per bushel.
''Ihese Scotch potatoes cost from
seyenty-five shillings down to forty-five
shillings per ton ON board ship" the
broker continued, "but the latter is an
exceptionally low price. Then there is
the freight and an outrageous duty OF
fifteen cents bushel to be paid the gov
eminent, so that while the potatoes
can not compete with our best potatoes.
they still must fetch a good price in
order to pay for bringing them over.
This year was a dry one, and late
potatoes failed all through the south.
We send the Scotch potatoes to the
south and to the mining regions of
Pennsylvania, where the people can't
afford to pay high prices. We have
customer i'll Pittsburgh who orders ten
carloads week. | eat the Scotch
potatoes at home and like them. They
are good-sizsd, and hard as SO mauy
rocks. They come very muddy, because
of the constant rain out there at this
season. They are likely to be wet, and
need careful cooking, but they have not
the strong taste of many of the potatoes
we eat They are grown within radius
of from fifty to one hundred miles
around Glasgow"
Instead of putting their time and
money into cotton seed oil mills, as sug-
gested by the Marlin Index, the farmers
of Falls and McLennan counties, we
think, woIld do a wise thing in investing
in the establishment of a Clement at
tachment. 1t requires less CAPT
tai, less experience, and presents
fewer risks than large enterprises
of an intricate nature. We
believe it would result advantageously
to all concerned. A cheese manufactory
is also another enterprise which is d.
rectly in the line of the farmers duty.
To the practically uninitiated person
enterprises of the character Just sug-
gested present more suitable and judi
cious investments than sny of those
which have the cast of monopolies.
Dallas is apparently on the eve of es-
tablishing a pork-packing house. If
climatic Influences can be overcome
there land it seems reasonable to assert
they cam, then there is no valid reason
why they can not be in Waco. This
section has as many advantages, in the
way of procuring supplies, as Dallas,and
why not have such an enterprise here?