Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-03-18
POTATO PR1oEs.

The fact that potatoes have sold In
eastern markets at as high as $o.so
sper 100 pounds this spring has led to
numerous comparisons with the much
Flower prices which prevailed last
fall at digging time, and to comment
sons the profiteering which ia charged
against those who have sold at the
i higher price named. The theory
seems to be that potatoes are bousnt
in the fall from unsuspectinG farm
4 ers at a low price, and sold in the.
spring at three or four times the
price that was paid, all this being
contrary to the public welfare.
Perhaps there has been p~roftteer-
Ting in potatoes. Probably there has
been. It would be difficult to mem
ton an article in which there is not
s~profiteering somewhere at some time.
But the fact that potatoes sell at a
good deal higher price in the spring
than was paid for them in the fall
Sis not of itself evidence OF profiteer-
! ing, even if, in a given case, the mar
gin appears to be a disproportionate
one.
The storage of potatoes through
winter is extra hazardous, as those
i who have tried it have good rea-
son to know. The potato is an "ex"
ceedingly perishable article. 1t ripens
in the fall, in the best potato states
near freezing weather: If dug pre-
maturely it is unmarketable, and it
the digging is postponed a little too
B long damage by frost is almost sure
( to result. The period during which
i digging and marketing can be car
& ried on safely is so short that great
storage every year have, been pre-
i pared by immaturity, frost, Or some
of the numerous forms of incipicnt
rot to spoil in the pit or cellar. I'm
der the best possible conditions con-
siderable shrinkage is inevitable.
Under no conditions which are
commercially practicable is it pos
sibIe to keep potatoes over more than
n winter. They must be sold in
the spring or they are a dead loss
Many other commodities can be kept
indefinitely without loss. but not so
I she potato.
The spring price depends on The
supply available in the spring. Not
1 nng since potatoes were stored in
i Grand Forks in the fall at a dollar a
4 bushe! n hauled out to the dump
in the, spring by the thousand BUSH
j els because they could neither be
sold nor given away. They had to
be hauled out II they would have
become a nuisance. That is unusual,
but it is not at all unusual for the
price in the spring to be so low that
storage entails a loss. If such losses
cannot be recovered in unusually
Y good a dealers must quit storing
i and farmers u quit storing at
5home. In other words, unless there
is a fair prospect for a reasonable
average rate of profit year by year
"a The farmers will quit growing except
for their own use.
1t would be Interesting if some
statisticien were to give us fairly ac-
curate figures. If they are obtainable,
on h quantities OF potatoes that
\ have been stored in the United Safes.
say, for twenty years, the prices paid
for them in the fall, and the prices
& Mt which they were sold. The tables
Il would show big profits in some years.
They would show big losses in 9TH
ers What would be the average
rate OF profit. Would 1t represent
i = fair measure of compensation for
the service performed. or shnnld we
sSfind that on the whole the business
q has been conducted at a losz?
IA That would be for the statistician
"a to- tell US.