The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1916-03-03

seed was bringing good prices at that
time.
The kind of grower who has plenty |
OF potatoes when prices are low is |
just the same in Twin Falls as else
where. Next year he will probably |
plant none at ALL and prices will be
good He has no storage for his crop, |
to hold it until spring, when prices !
rally, and so has to sell right after
harvest. Despite great advantages of |
SOIL, climate and marketing facilities, !
he plants any old kind of seed, of any
variety, and so gets a poor, diseased !
crop and adds to the many different
varieties that now complicate market !
ing in Twin Falls
The capable grower, on the other
hand, has a good crop of spuds in
years when they are scarce, and his
bumper crop in years of plenty still
brings him profit because it is so
well grown that it commands prem
ium
The big shipping concerns at Twin
Falls, with customers for fancy bak
ers, deal with this type of grower to
the exclusion of the average grow err
AAAo 9INQ Aldn Dttn uAll-SGlCCltu lOl
uniform size, shapeliness, smoothness.
He grows only one or two varieties
the kinds that have been found most
desirable in building up distant mar
kets. His potatoes are grown IN a
rotation that puts the land in fine
filth. They are free from disease,
large and high class in every way
The buyers take his whole crop at the
market price, put it through the grad
err, get a large percentage of potatoes
running eight ounces and over, and
pay him a premium of ten to twenty
cents a hundred pounds for all the
large tubers.
The Potato Breakfast ut Twin Falls.
A story is told of one Twin Falls
grower who was Just average He
never had a profitable crop, somehow,
though men all round him were max
ing money on potatoes. Finally a po-
tato buyer persuaded him to pay good
Iprices for seed from a grower who
had developed uniform strain by Sc
lection. The next fall he had more
than 800 bushels of potatoes to the
acre, and of such quality that most of
them brought a premium.
In grading at Twin Falls potatoes
are run over a screen with openings
two to two and half inches This
roughly sorts out all tubers weighing
less than eight ounces. Then the
large sizes are separated and the
small potato of the south is freed from
the absolute culls.
Different varieties are constantly be-
ing tried. Uncle Sam has conducted
. many experiments with new varieties
in the district, and dealers are always
on the lookout for some new potato
that will meet peculiar storage or
market conditions somewhere.
However, the main crop from a mar
ket standpoint so far centers on two
varieties: One Is the Melted Gem,
oblong the great big baked potato"
of the western dining car. This Is
: also called the Russell Burbank and
Snowflake. The other is the Rural
! New Yorker. Dealers say that the
sooner all growers come to these two
varieties the better for the district.
= Average yields are 100 sacks to the
acre, the sack holding about two
d, bushels Some of the best growers
e however get crops of 200 to $50 sacks
Fifty cents a hundred pounds is rough.
ly figured as the lowest price at which
potatoes can be grown in the district
b That is pretty near absolute cost
thirty cents bushel. Sixty cents
brings a real profit, and dollar hun
dred pounds spells prosperity to the
grower. It is easy to see, therefore
that a premium of ten to twenty cents
= hundred pounds received for size
and smoothness and shapeliness rep
! resents a fine additional profit on the
! crop
One of the fixed feasts of Twir
. Falls is the annual Potato Breakfast
held every February, at which grow
1 ers, buyers, business men, public Off
Gals and the moving spirits of the dis
. trict generally get together. This af
fair is really a dinner. held in thu
9 evening at the biggest hall in town
$ the high schol auditorium. 81
i breakfast" is a misnomer But "po
tato" is not
At that gathering of $50 people thu
5 potato is king, and Twin Falls does
d homage to the specially that has tax
[ en- its produce into every big produce
e market of the United States and man,
q foreign ones.