The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1917-05-05

lOuh DootS III tlllN Nv
other appointee is A. d. Dawson,
of Stevenson. Skamania count.I.
1t is said that Dawson was the
first man in the state to organize
a farm loan association There
will be two appraisers for each
state.
The 1916 potato crop of Stevens
county is now about cleaned out,
and those who pinned their faith
to tubers as a profitable crop have
not, in the main, been disappoint-
ed. In fact, the heretofore in
glorious and lowly spud has arisen
in it's might and lifted some very
menacing obligations in the form
Of farm mortgages that had eX-
hibited hideous proportions. The
ruling price during the past three
months delivered at the station
for shipment has been from $3.50
to SO per hundred. Last fall they
were to be had in plenty at from
80 cents to a dollar a sack. but
few sold. Most of the farms have
had from one to five acres Of po-
tatoes, and produced from 5 to s
tons to the acre. The price has
been so alluring that many failed
to observe the necessity for hold
ing back enough seed to plant a
much larger acreage this year,
but few farseeing gardners have
provided against this and have es-
capped the higher cost of cuttings
for the coming crop.
The Stevens county farmecs
have learned in the present cru
sade of higher prices that it pays
to use good seed, plant with care
and in selected soil, and grade
and prepare the output in nice
shape for the market. 1t is said
this is done by the Yakima valley
farmers and that they receive from
S. to $40 more per ton for their
output. Another thing the farm
ers have learned here is that by
making a speciality of the planting
of the best varieties, and consult
ing other producers on this point,
they can control the demand of
the irrigated districts for first
class seed. Wines & English and
the Wilson Produce Co., Of Col
vile are the largest exporters of
tubers in the county, and they ap-
prOXimate that the potatoes ship
ped Of the 1916 crop to date will
exceed 125 cars raised in the Col
vile and Columbia river valleys.
The crop and livestock survey
Of the county being conducted by
the Stevens County Industrial
Preparedness Commission, Of
which county Auditor Earle 7.
Gates is, ex-officio, the secretary,
John B. Slater chairman, and upon
which each Of the departments Of
the county government has a rep
resentative, is receiving scant en-
couragement in it's enterprise of
gathering statistics in the inter
est of the work. of the 5000 in
quiries sent out during the past
two weeks less than three per
cent have responded. Miss Stan
nard, county school superinten-
dent, who circularized the school
districts through the teachers,
states that one Of the districts
failed to return a single blank, and
it was the opinion of the teacher,
who wields the rod in that partic-
ular district, that there is a vague
suspicion among the school pa
irons that there is some ulteriOr
design in the gathering Of the in
formation called for. Some
thought the purpose was to obtain
first hand information as to their
possessions in order to know
where to lay hands on the goods
when the government needed
them. 1t is unfortunate that the
people are so busy with notions of
their own that they can not con-
slider the interest of the govern
mant whom tho nation 10 otr,Iu