The Greeley tribune., 1905-02-02
Potato Prospects for Future

tremely low. and the fact that we
may not be able to market our entire
crop of last season even at uhreihuh'
atiye prices is, | observe, re'l'ihs
the idea which has at dlliereiu
times in the past worried some oi
our local newspapers and i'll less oe-
gree the farmers, to-wlt: tlat we aie
OVERRIDING the business and tiiat we
had better devote more ground 10
other crops and especially Just now
to sugar beets. am not proposing
TO discourage the production OF
beets: in fact now that we have the
factory and as long as fair prices are
Maid | believe it good policy lor
every farmer who has the SOIL ana
other facilities for growing them
successfully, to put in few acres
each wear. But we must still re-
gard the future for that business
as vastly more uncertain than the
older one of growing potatoes. Ana
should il happen that the nation does
Justice to our new subjects, the peo-
pie of the Philippine islands, whom
we make pious pretence OF govern
ing for their own good and for the
purpose of civilizing them, and should
in the near future admit their sugar
product free, as indeed we certainly
should do if they are part or us ana
belong with us, then ruin mlght en-
sue for our insipient sugar industry.
The sugar trust says so, ana 1 am
inclined to believe that they tell the
truth. And so | would stay with the
potatoes. | do not mean that we
should increase our acreage at the
present time, but l mean and affirm
that there is no special reason lof
discouragement, nor why we should
greatly reduce our planting. hear
that we are growing more potatoes
now than will supply our natural
market. but | and others remember
hearing that story for more than
quarter of century since we have
been engaged in growing potatoes III
the vicinity of Greeley. 1t is true
that in times past when we were
occasionally overstOcked we did not
produce anywhere near the quantity
that we now do, but it is true also
that while our business has been con-
stantly growing, the population in
our natural markets has also been
increasing. And as one who in times
past ,at least, has had a great deal OF
experience in potato growing, l do
not believe present conditions are
any more likely to occur in the fu-
ture, nor any oftener than they have
in the past.
Suppose that myself and my bro
ther planted the first > acres OF pota-
toes grown in the colony; we put
them in on a iiveacre tract just west
of where | still live in town, in the
spring of 1871. l suppose too that
we were the first to grow as large
field as twenty-five acres, which we
did on my place that | cwned and
cultivated for so many years under
canal No. >, in 1872, and | might
with justice make the claim that
| myself was the first individual
owner who unasSociated with any
one else, grew forty acres, which |
did in 1878. And so If my memory is
fairly good as to the ups and downs
in the business ! ought to be able
to give points to others who en-
gagged later.
/ observed and often called atten-
tion to the fact when we were meet
ing just such discouraging conditions
as exist at present, that in our past
experience we could rely i'll each
three-year period on having at least
one year of high prices and great
profits: that it was common occur
ance to have one year in three of
only moderate prices in which. with a
good crop we could still make a little
money, while with only fair crop
or with an inferior yield we could at
best break even. or not quite pay
expenses, and that it was not un-
usual occurrence to have one year in
three such abnoralmly low prices
that with anything except an enor-
nous yield we all lost money. |
think that rule will hold good also
for the time since | retired from
the field, and at all events in all
the thirty-tive years that have
elapsed since the first potatoes were
planted in the gardens here in the
spring of 1870 | remember but two
losing seasons which occurred to-
gether. | remember very vividly
the first serious setback that over
took me in the business. l had been
increasing my acreage steadily from
1871 to 1917, when in the fall of that
year there occurred just about such a
slump in the market as that which
fell upon us last fall. The result