Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1915-04-10
BRIGHT FUTURE FOR POTATOES
Standardization of Production Will
Mean Millions of Dollars
in Profits.
By A. ID. Campbell.


ing agricultural problems. What to
do for the soil is not much of prob
lem in Wiscons.. u and will be as long
as we continue as a dairying and stock
growing state. By this | do not mean
that we can afford to disregard study
and Improvement of soil, for condit-
ions are never 80 good that there can
be no improvement. What do mean
is that we will continue for general
ions to produce more than average
crops without soil improvement and
that with it we will distance nearly
every other region.
We are solving our agriculture pro-
blem-or keeping them solved by re-
fusing to change from the dairying
and livestock industries that have
been 80 profitable during the last
quarter of century that Wisconsin
farmers are reputed to have better in
comes than those of any other great
state. The demand for butter, cheese.
and meat continues with little variat-
ion and always with profit to the far
mer. Nothing is to be feared as to the
future market for these products and
as long as we follow our present course
we will continue on the highway of
prosperity.
We have found the solution for
rural credits and with the adoption by
the Wisconsin bankers of the slogan,
Wisconsin capital for Wisconsin
development, we are putting the
solution into operation. Our mort
gage loan company is shaping it's af-
fairs with view to placing 800, 600
per month on Wisconsin farms. This
removes the last excuse for delay in
adopting better equipment and secur-
ing better stock.
There remains the perishable pro-
ducts which in Wisconsin are few in
number but large in total production.
OF these potatoes are the chief item,
with apples second. What to do toward
the solution of the problem as affect
these products has been a matter of a
considerable contention until recently
The idea that has taken root in Wis
consin as to these products is system
that would at once result in the pro-
ductiOn of the right kind and quality
of products and their being marketed
on an intelligent basis. In this con
nectiOn lesson is deducible from the
experience of the lumberman. There
was time when that industry had
little system, when buying by mail
was impossible because the buyer did
not know how to order what he want
ed and the seller did not know to ship,
and if an effort was made to do bust
ness by mail a lawsuit was the sure
result. Now the business is so syste-
matiZed and standardized that the
mail or telegraph is the usual means
of business communication each
nOws what an order means.
Such system is feasible for such
crops as potatoes. First, we must do
as lumbermen did standardiZe pro-
duction. A carefully devised schedule
must be adopted and production
brought up TO that schedule. Certain
symbols must be used to indicate
quality and other symbols for sizes
so that / A Green Mountain or b
Burbank will have definite meaning
to all parties concerned in transact
ion, This is what we are headed for
in Wisconsin, and let us hope that it
is what we are rapidly coming to.
Then dealer in Chicago, st. Louis
or New Orleans will be able to place
an order by mail or telegraph and
know what he is TO get. Nothing will
so popularize Wisconsin potatoes as
such Observation-Disclosures alone in
that it will create a condition under
which seller and buyer will understand
each other, but in that it will result in
the production of quality of product
that will command all markets. 1t
will mean millions of dollars annually
tn the farmers of the state.
The Wisconsin Potato Growers as
sociation is on the right track. 1t
should be supported on all hands and
it will solve the potato problem and
lead the way to the Standardization of
other perishable crops in Wisconsin.
Told That There Was NO Cure