The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1910-07-28
I. \. GRUB N LONDON.
Colorado Potato King Studying Farm
Methods as Practlced ON Other Side.


Methods As PractIced ON Other Side.
E. H. Grub, the Colorado Potato
King. who Is we'll known on the Twin
Falls tract Is In England and Scotland
studying farming methods, particular
~ that which concern potato growing.
The London Daily Graphic in re-
cent edition gives the following inter-
view with Mr.. Grubb:
1t was the lqte Dean Hole, was It
not, who sang OF beauty In the radish,
though IT lives below in gloom. For
Its leaves arc gay and gladdish, .
though its heart Is In the tomb Sure
~ the Dean would have delighted in
MIR. Eugene H. Grubb who Is now Wis
iting in the United Kingdom and Eu-
rope ON studying potato culture on
the behalf Of the department OF agri-
culture OF the United States. Mr..
Grubb is devoted to potatoes. He is
big expert An American with his
wife and daughter walked into
Strand restaurant Of blameless repute
few days ago. Delicious stew and
joint they said, "but the pOtatoes!"
The Puritan father was shocked. A
Strand chef acknowledged afterwards
20 having learnt more about potatoes
in ten minutes that afternoon than in
all his life before. Mr.. Eugene Fl
Grubb OF Carbonate, Colorado, taught
him.
You throw away the most edible
and valuable portion" Mr.. Grubb told
a Daily Graphic representative who
talked with him at Hardill's hotel, the
outside layer, about a quarter of an
inch under the skin. Your people pare
that off If people were properly edu-
Gated to the value of potatoes as de-
licacy, the consumption of the world
would be doubled. The English peo-
pie do not know the luxury of the
baked potato. 1t is one of the favorite
dishes in American. Your methods Of
serving potatoes are crude, primitive"
Then why, it may be asked, is Mr.
Gruhb here to learn? Simply because
America wants to know more about
the growing and marketing (as dis
tinct from the eating) of potatoes. He
is visiting all the fairs and great
farms. He has been to Lord Redes-
dale's and Sir Walter Gilbey's; he is
going to Lord Rothchild's and to Lord
Rosetery's Dalmeny station. His mis-
sion means a study of the whole agri-
cultural industry this side of the At
lantic. I'VE grow in round figures 800
million bushels annually; we need at
least $50 million bushels.
You grow in the United Kingdom as
many as we do in the whole United
States, and your yields are as three to
our one per acre. The state of Idaho
alone could produce all that the whole
United States now produces--if the in
dustry were developed to its maxi
num-"
Not only our extravaganza in pota-
toes strikes Mr.. Grub. Our market
methods, he says, would break an
American farmers heart Il buy in
London basket of strawberries, Az
or pounds, 10d. They are put up in
basket with tin handle costing 3d.
In America we would put them in
package costing less than half penny
| saw potatoes from Canary and Jer-
sey arriving in crates of seventeen
pounds tare in efghty-ffve pounds-a
package made of lumber double the
thickness necessary. | don't know, of
course, about your social conditions.
You may do that sort of thing in or
der to employ the great surplus of
cheap labor you have here. Again you
use the old carts for bringing products
to markets. Some of them are at least
seven feet high. 1t costs money to lift
hundred weight seven feet In Amer
lea we have low-bodied trucks and. low
wheeled carriages. On an average your
English farmer raises all his crops
double the height, to market or stack,
than the American farmer does. Be-
cause we use machines more and
hands less, farming in America is not
restricted to people of strong physi-
que. Some of our most successful
farmers and stock people now are wo-
men,
Your farms are more beautiful, y
continued Mr.. Grubb; your farm life
has more comforts. The artistic in
stinct is strong in England Your ag-
riculturists is q factor in the social
system. Your farmer wears a silk hat,
carries a cane, dresses for dinner,
keeps a coaehman. Yet the English
tenant-farmer would be looked down
upon in America, where man who
does not own his land is the object of
criticism Your successful farms are
over-capitalized; ours are under-capi-
talized. That is the greatest drawback
to American farming"
Mr.. Grubb wants more British we'll
to-do men and women to share in the
awakening in Idaho and other States.
But he sees a fine future home for
British farmers. with your splendid
market and climate, your agriculture
will have splendid opportunities when
given methods more economical. Uncle
Same has no more farms to give away.
Our granaries are exhausted, our feed
lofts are understocked We cannot
send you any more cheap foods from
America You have wonderful bright
future-brighter in my judgment, than
you have ever had since | have known
anything of agriculture. Our popula-
ton is increasing SO rapidly that I'M
less we study how to get better yields
we shall be an importer of foodstuffs
in ten years"