The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-06-05
THE FLORIDA POTATO CROP
Jacksonville Times)

There has Deen Hucu
this spring as to the final outcome Oh
the Irish potato crop in Florida anu
whether or not the growers would DC
heavy losers, would come out eyen' or
make profit.
Last year the potato growers maze
so much money that it was the taih
OF the country and this resulted IN
the acreage being practically doubled
this year. In the celebrated Hastings
potato section the acreage was III
creased from 10000 acres to over w.
600 acres and in the same proportion
the growers in other localities took
the plunge, while many new sections
were invaded by ambitious growers,
fired by the stories of last years sue
cesses. anxious to make their ever
lasting fortunes at one swoop.
This is an age old story OF people
In every place and cline and repeat
ed disastrous experiences seem to
have little or no effect in checking
the mad rush for get-rich-quick re-
suits. Had the growers taken the
trouble to study the conditions, as
successful manufacturers and bust
ness men study the conditions affect
ing their trades and business, they
would have learned that the entire
United States produced an unusually
heavy crop of potatoes last summer
and, besides, hundreds of thousands
CT war gardens were cultivated ant
on these were grown at least q por'
ton of the potatoes used by the own
crs, who would ordinarily be pur'
chasers of the field crops. througi
their grocery stores or public markets
or from huckster wagons.
This immense crop of potatoes was
stored away for the winter and, or
account of the extreme cold. was no
brought to light on the public mar
kets until rather late in the sprinl
and as the cold weather continued I'M
until April the old potatoes held VI
we'll and were almost as good as thu
new potatoes grown in Florida; il
fact they were better than the frs
new potatoes that appeared on tn
market, because the Florida growers
in their zeal to reach the market frs
and secure top prices, dug before tn
potatoes had matured and the gree
stock was soggy and did not carr
we'll and lacked the usually fine flaw
or that has made the Florida potat
q ready seller on the spring marke
at good prices
After the first rush the price
slumped quickly and there was con
sternation in the potato sections
Heavy rains for period of two week
also had bad effect in the main pc
tato belt and this, with the low price,
halted the digging for time A pull
iicity campaign was also started, ure
ing the people in the South, as we
as the North, to eat new potatoes an
conserve other food materials an
between these two things the markt
gradually came back, until now
has reached the five-dollar mark fc
barrels Of number one potatoes an
the movement is active. If the shil
ments are properly distributed tt
market should remain steady and wi
probably advance slightly, possibl
to six dollars for first grades.
1t has been estimated that thel
were fully 10000 acres of Irish pot;
b toes grown in the State and it is lik
ly that amount was exceeded by fly
thousand acres and as the yield W:
an unusually heavy one this yea
averaging around seventy barrels
the acre, this would show a total ere
! of over 100000 barrels. At an ave
age price Of 81 a barrel this wouI
t make the crop sell for $S,OOO,O00 {
something in excess of that amour
last year, with only 10000 acres, Il
Hastings section sold its crop for ov,
s5,000,000, to say nothing of the D
tatoes grown in all other sections
the State.
When the price came back to som
thing like normal early last week.
was estimated that about rs per ce
of the entire crop in the State HI
been shipped. Possibly twenty D
I cent of the crop was shipped befo
p the slump came and if the last TIVE
ty-fve per cent brings good prices
is seen that nearly half of the or
e will have been marketed profitabl
e The other half did not pay expens
in many cases, while in others il