The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1915-09-03
A POTATO SELLER IN TOWN


potato situation and gave out some
valuable information for potato rails
ers. Mr.. Fenton has a farm at Jer-
ONE, and when the land show was
held in Chicago some years ago he
studied the potato question from the
standpoint of the well-to-do consumer
and found that plenty of people want
Idaho potatoes moe than they want
any others because they are, better
than others, but they also want them
in certain grades and quantities that
make it necessary to sort them
irigidly.
BY comforting with potato consum-
'ers, and especially the hotel men, he
got to grading potatoes into three
grades or sizes, and when he can fill
orders on that grading he gets good
price--a price that justifies the grad
ing. For the different purposes, they
are graded into sizes four to eight
ounces, eight to twelve and from
twelve ounces up. When few pota-
toes get into the wrong grade it Gre
Eates dissatisfaction with the consum-
er. For example, if hotel serving
potatoes with meat orders can get
the uniform size potatoes that just
about suit to serve with meat orders,
any off-size potatoes that are served
make difference against the custom
err or against the house, so that the
man buying for this purpose is willing
to give good price but he wants
what he orders. If he wants ten
ounce potatoes and opens up sack af-
ter sack of uniform size, he is delight
ed and wants the firm that supplied
them to keep him on the list to re-
ceive deliveries just like them. The
price does not matter so much, it is
the grading that he is particular
about.
Mr.. Fenton has a store in Chicago
and says he has tried to educate his
neighbors at Jerome to sort their po-
tatoes to absolute. grades and ship to
him direct and let him supply this
kind of customers, but each year he
has been disappointed. The potatoes
all had to be sorted again after
reaching Chicago, and he would not
only have to dump a lot of worthless
stuff after paying for it and paying
freight and dray, but he would have
to pay to get it out of Chicago and
these losses all have to come out of
him and the producers. He finds that
If grading could only be done where
the potatoes are raised, and done so
absolutely right that he could ship
them into Chicago and cart them right
to the hotels and know that each sack
would open up according to the label
he could hold the Chicago hotel trade
for Idaho potatoes against all Corners
and pay good prices to the growers.
I The question came up, Cant a
man sit down and grade his own po-
,tatoes during the winter and know
that they are right" He cannot. 1t
has been found that no man, however
careful, can grade his own potatoes
NV bond ond not MN tbo .pooIlo,,
grades into the larger ones until they
cease to come up to grade. Persons
who do not own any interest in them
can come nearer doing II than any
body else,. but the eye tires and the
judgment wanes and sizes go wrong.
The machine, then, is the only relia-
BILE thing to do the sorting, and of all
the graders on the market, most of
them allow some potatoes to go
wrong when crowded.
Mr.. Fenton found that the Black
foot association at Blackfoot have
machine that weighs every potato and
throws it into the grade where it be-
longs, and Manager James Pendle-
bury said that all he needed was
man to market his shipments, the
growers will supply the high quality
potatoes and the machine will sort
them absolutely right. We did not
learn whether the two men completed
arrangements for the fall trade, but
we assume that they have.
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