Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-05-26
GROWERS 70 EXPORT LARGE
QUANTITIES DIRECT TO
SOUTH AMERICA.
AGENT TURNS
NEAT BUSINESS DEAL
Closes Contract in Central and South
America and in West Indies-Largs
Shipments to be Made From iowa's
Onion Section During Season-Hish
Prices For Hot STUFF in Hot cou ntries.

Davenport, May %. - Successful in
making it's members Independently
wealthy by cooperative marketing, the
Pleasant Valley Onion Growers AS
ISOLATION has now determined TO in
crease the return of Iowa land by elm
mating the exporters profit. Produce
of the Hawkeye state is now sold di-
rect by the farmers to the consumer
abroad.
President Charles Hanna, OF the
onion growers, has returned from the
West Indies, Central and South Amer
lea, where he went to turn the trick
The head of the onion growers,
wealthlest farmers in Iowa own
ing land valued at over $1,000
per acre. went alone on this
trip to find new markets in the
southern hemisphere. He IS the sole
survivor of the much talked Of much
advertised company of United States
merchants and manufacturers who
were to sail to South America and
calmly appropriate the English and
German trade while his hostile Anglo
Saxon cousins We're busy cutting one
anothers threats.
The onion growers didn't plan to
send their president and sales man
ager on the link the Americas" cruise
for advertising. They don't need to
advertise. The appetizing oGor OF the
famous Red Globe tuber sells it without
trouble, but they saw the golden OPP
portunity of cutting out the exporters
profit, beating their European farmer
competitors and getting an unheard
of price for their crop, all three things
at once SO, when the link the Amer
icas" cruise was called off they went
right ahead
President Hanna sailed Feb. IS from
Mobile in the steamer Perthe OF the
Orr-Laubenheimer Fruit Company's
line. The ship flies the American tlaS
Before sailing he made four day trip
70 Havana, Cuba, to place several car
loads of 1915 Red Globes. In the Voy-
age he stopped to get customers in
Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela and
along the east coast Of Brazil and
Bahia. Rio and Santos were the chief
detectives. He was in South America
six weeks.
This marketer for the cooperative
farmers is young man some 80 years
of age. He is one of the enterprls-
ing young German Americans who
combine the steady application to bus
mess of one race with the initiative
and enterprise of the other He does
not make any predictions. He said he
was going to find out If we can sell
onions down there for more than we
get here as he sums up the object OF
| the novel business trip.
! BRING High Prices
| Down in South America onions are
selling at So per hundred. Here in Iowa
! the top-notch price last fall was 81
And that was the most money the
1 bulbs have brought since the industry
| was founded by H. Schutter, Ger
man immigrant, 50 years of age
| The palate of sombrero land must
| have onions. Up to the present time
! the principal supply has come from
! the Spanish peninsula and from the
! Canary Islands. The European wal
| has greatly hurt this trade. Europe
needs all of it's own foodstuffs. The
| war has made Europeon shipping ana
| insurance rates eXtortionate.
| Freight rates from Iowa to Contra
/ and South America, on the other hand
are not high. The big fruit companies
which bring to the United States
countless cargoes Of bananas coffee
cocoanuts and cacao (the raw product
| from which chocolate is made) have
little enough freight for the return triI
south They have quoted favorable
rates and the cooperative marketing
| farmers of Iowa are taking advantage
Of them.
| The Pleasant Valley growers have
been in the export business before. II
| 1913 they sold four carloads Of 2o.OOl
| bushels each to commission houses IL
| Havana Cuba. The year before tina
ten carloads were sold to the Germa
! government for Kaiser Wilhelm
army. Since then the price has gon
up so much and the demand has in
creased to such an extent that all o
last years crop was sold here.
900 Acres Of Onions.
One must know something about thu
onion industry Of the valley or he car
not comprehend why an Iowa farme
should make a trip all the way t
South America to find markets. Arount
Pleasant Valley, town Of few hun
dred souls, seven miles up the Missis
sIpp from Davenport, there is 300 acre
Of onion land. 1t is black sandy loan
lying in the form of alluvial flats alon;
the Mississippi river. This land
worth over $1,000 an acre now and al
because the tuber growers got tired o
selling their crop to wholesale and re
tail grocers of Davenport for whateve
price these merchants wanted to give
They formed a cooperative aSsocia
ton. bought their seed in big lots pur
chased the sacks for the harvest j.
| ono purchase tried out and bought al
onion topping machine, a recent in