The Elbert County tribune. [volume] (Elbert, Elbert County, Colo.) 18??-1920, 1904-10-06
The Secret of Selling Spuds.

Our potatoes are mostly sold nowadays
by brokers in the larger cnslern cities
Say there is a dealer in Carbondale orin
Greeley who sells TO brokers or takes or
ders from the large markets. He will
write a description OF the kind of stock
to that broker, who will go to commits
sion house or dealer and say that he has
ten or twenty five cars Of extra fancy
stock He mhTepresents the local dealer
in trying to make sale to the commis-
sion houses. The commission man Will
say, III you have that hnd of potatoes
we can pay so much for them" The
broker wires the local dealer to ship ten
cars to so and so, and they 20 direct from
the dealer. Often-but not always
when the potatoes arrive they are not
fancy stock us ordered or as the broker
represented. OF course the potatoes arc
turned down, for they ure not up to con-
tract or grade. The buyer notifies tho
broker, who wires the lDcal man ia the
west that the potatoes-are subject to his
order for they are not as represented.
Then, of course, they must be sold for
the best, price obtainablc, all through the
Misrepresentation of tho broker while
thc shipper and the local dealer arc
blamed. There should be some way TO
avoid this trouble.
aHotutf tulnk IDtHlOtS are getting
into the hands largely Of speculators.
like Armour S Co. Ihe market price
huctuatcs according to reports OF the
weather. as does grain, so that there is
no stable price as there used to be. The
remedy is difficult to determine perhaps
nething but local or stnto organization
and establishing grade OF potatoes ns
nearly as possible like wheat, oats, and
other grain.
Today they are graded according to va
rieties. Take the Greeley market re-
ports. in which spuds are graded or
priced as Rose Seedlings, Rurnlsor Pearls.
There Ii no other quotation. There is no
snch thing as No. Rurais or No. l Pearls
or No. =. These things can only be rem
edied by some state organization and CO.
operation. Our people nave studied the
weather conditions and crop reports.
The government reports arc probably tie
poorest estimate Of crop conditions OF
my ever given out by amy people, coun-
try, organization or commission house, so
that we can put no reliance whatever in
them.
/ spent nearly one year studying the
weather conditions of all the potato dis
triuts in the. wurld-liermany, all of
Britain, England, Ireland and Scotland,
Canada, all tho eastern territory. all OF
the middle states, aud all Of the west, as
well as Colorado, to derive some knowl-
edge or information AZ to the amount OF
potatoes produced and their keeping
qualities, and | had no way OF getting
Information except by personal effort.
j think our associations could do this by
cooperation. L know of no other way to
protect the potato growers of Colorado
in knowing what time to market in order
to get best results.
Speaking Of cooperation The little
potato growers association at Carbon
dale through its efforts secured a rate OF
10 cents hundred to the Pacific coast,
where We had been paying sl.S5 for sew
eral years. 1t saved Approximately sl4 II
thousand on every thousand sacks We
ship. Now with that rate applied to all
Colorado points, what could we not do il
we had u state organization to take up
this matter Of securing rates andgradesY
Our Colorado products should be of
universal grade so that when our spuds
20 they will not be known as San Luis,
Greeley or Gunnison, but all OF one quail
ity and grade, and thus bring the same
price. - Eugene H. Grubb, in Denver
Field and Farm.