Smyrna times., 1920-09-15
TOMATO PROBLEM STILL
A VITAL ONE TO FARMERS
STATE SITUATION WILL NOT I'M
PROVE UNTIL ALL COOPERATE
Gamers and Growers Must Get To-
gether-BrOOks L. Ross Gives
Report to Produce Growers.

SetneF-DFOOkS l.. hOSS OlVeS
Report to Produce Growers.
The meeting of the Seaford Pro-
duce Growers Association Thursday
night was of unusual interest. The
president, Brooks L. Ross, had Just
returned from Columbus, Ohio, where,
as a representative of the Peninsula
Tomato Growers Association, he had
attended the meeting of a commit
tee called to consider the organiza-
ton of an Interstate Canning Crops
Association. He gave a report of
the meeting and told of what he
ha dleaned regarding the growing
and marketing of canning crops,
especially in the middle west. Mr..
Ross was selected as the chairman
of the Columbus meeting and L. r.
Simon, secretary of the marketing
committee of the New York State
Farm Bureau Federation, was Sc
lected as secretary.
Among other things, Mr.. Ross re-
ported that he had learned that in
Ohio and Indiana the average crop
of tomatoes is from eight to ten tons
per acre, for which the farmers re-
ceive from $22.50 to $25 a ton, bas-
kets furnished by the Gamers. This
an average price of nearly 40 cents
a basket or about 5000 an acre, and
the baskets furnished. 1t will at
once be seen, he said, that tomatoe
growing is much more profitable
there than here. At so cents a bas-
ket, the price asked this year, the
tomato crop would have netted far
less per acre than in the west at the
price named. Yet the farmers
would hardly have gotten cost of
production out of the crop had they
realized so cents a basket and fur
nished baskets themselves. The item
of baskets is not to be disregarded
Another item reported by Mr..
Ross was that in Wisconsin, the
great pea-growing State, the farm
ers receive free seed peas. There
is a growing feeling among the farm
ers that they assume more than their
share of the risk on an uncertain
crop when IN addition to providing
increasingly expensive fertilizers and
the necessary labor for growing and
harvesting the crop, they also have
to pay for the seed peas. 1t appears
that in Wisconsin the Gamer shares
the risk with the farmers by fur
nishing the seed peas free.
1t is unfortunate that in this sec
tion there seems to have developed
a feeling of hostility on the part of
the Gamers toward the farmers. The
latter, in fixing so cents a basket
as the price for their tomatoes this
year, named a price fully as low as
tomatoes can be grown, as the cost
of production now stands. AS an
evidence of this hostile feeling, one
Gamer who has a factory within
twenty miles of Seaford, is reported
on good authority to have said the
Gamers could have paid so cents &
basket this year, but they We're not
going to do it because they were
going to break up the associations in
Maryland and Delaware.
Cne who is deeply interested says:
''When two classes of producers
are so entirely dependent, each upon
the other, for the continuance of
any industry, as are the farmers and
the Gamers, it is a most threaten
ing menace to both when those of
Tho oy,o o1acc oro mt vyiI1iror +O nav
to those of the other class for their
product enough to cover the cost of
production of the commodity in
question, together with a reasonable
profit. Of course, if the Gamers in
the east cannot afford to pay as
much for tomatoes as do the can
ners of Indiana, and the farmers
cannot grow them for less, then
there is but one inevitable result,
however much it may be deplored-
the farmers must stop growing to-
matoes and turn their attention to
other crops. In the interest of all
it is to be sincerely hoped
that before the time for setting of
another crop of tomatoes the Gamers
and the farmers will reach an under
standing whereby the farmers can
be guaranteed a reasonable price,
and the Gamers may continue to pack |
the tomatoes grown by the farmers.
Such an understanding should be to
the advantage of both"