The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1922-06-23
SLAT BARRELS CAUSE u
LOSS OF THOUSAND.
Markets Demand Potatoes in Stave Barre
While Local Growers Must Use
Stats or Nothing

| GrOWcTS OIL carly lIlSii T.
tatoes in the Elizabeth CT,
territory will lose $4,000
$4,000 this season for la}
of acceptable packages
which to mail their prodd}
More than fifty per cent
the potatoes shipped fro!
this section 60 in slat barra
and potatoes so packed al
not in demand anywhere al
are sacrificed at Is cents
$1.O0 less per barrel than Il
same potatoes would bring
packed in stave barrels.
But the growers can't get sta|
barrels. The manufacturers in Ell
abeth City insist upon making ii
barrels. Elizabeth City coopera|
concerns have produ ed 100000 bd
rels this season. of which numb
130. 900 were Stats. With 1000
barrel potato crop TO market, q
growers of this section have be-
able to secure only 10000 staye ba
rels. g
A stave barrel costs IL to y
cents. A slat barrel costs 3S cent
But the manufacturers make mo
money on slat barrels.
The slat barrel made in Elizabe|
City-and elsewhere for that matt
lis an undependable piece of furr
ture. God only knows how one hoB
together from the farm to the ma
ket. Often they don't. Slat barre
are made of gum veneering and a
made up about like q ten cent mn
ket basket. II you ever tried Z,
got home with a ten cent mark
basket full Of provisions on a So
urday night, you know all you ne,
to know about the unreliability Of
slat barrel.
Two hundred or more of the,
barrels packed tight in car W
stand up until they reach their de
tination. But that il about all. II
distributor in New York can't r
ship these packages to other point
because they will not stand so mu,
handling. And that isn't the wor
of it.
The slat barrel will stretch like.
slat basket or a rubber glove. f
it full of potatoes in the field ne.
Elizabeth City; fill 1t heaping up Al
running over; and when it gets
New York, Pittsburgh, Detroit
Chicago the thing will have stretch,
and the potatoes have shaken .doy
until il looks like it was only thr
fourths full in the first place. c
goes 80 cents. Is cents or a dollar
the market price.
Potatoes in rigid, outstanding, d
pcndable stave barrels may be in d
mand and selling at $4.75 to S.l
But buyers will pass up the unsigI
ly. fiimsy, shaken down slat barrt
at $3.7j to $500. This has ha
pened daily in Philadelphia, NJ
York. Boston. Pittsburgh, Detro
Cleveland, Chicago and elsewhe
every day this season.
Here is typical telegramsfrom
Columbus, o. dealer to an Elizabe
City grower:
Your car not all sold. Mark
$500. Slat barrels not desired; "
use best efforts"
The grower who got that telegrs
had shipped slat barrels to a mark
that was paying $500 for stave bi
relied potatoes OH June u. He 4
less than $500 barrel for his sla
This newspaper has seen ma
kilograms and letters just like I
one above quoted. Every market
the country is hostile to slat barre
Buyers everywhere are passing
the slat barrels to buy the ma
slightly stave package. Every d
the daily market report of the II
reau of Markets and Crop Estimat
of the L. s. Department of Agricl
ture tells the story of the disadva
tage of the slat barrel. Everywhe
the stave barrel is in demand a
commanding the top market pri!
while slat barrels are sacrificed
the critical trade, often at 30. ceI
to S1.O0 less than the same potato
would bring il packed in dependal
barrels. But Elizabeth City bar
makers go right on making slat bt
rels instead of slaves. because tn
have the machinery for making sli
and it would cost them something
change. They would change if sol
one would establish fOrmidab
stave barrel factory to compete WI
them. 1t would pay the growers,
Elizabeth City to buy all the $
barrel machinery in the territory
scrap it forever: for $50,0O0 /.
100000 will be lost to the Elizabs
City territory this season because
the compulsory use of slat BARREL
,,,,t. ,.,n nr II