Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-02-03
POTATO PRICES AND YIELDS.

In the interesting figures on the potato indus
try given by Statistician Surratt, two facts stand out
prominently. First, the potato industry is a highly
speculative one from the standpoint of prices. Sec
ond, potato yields in the United States are far too
low.
10 describe the potato industry as speculative
from the standpoint OF prices is not to suggest that
the potato crop is an unsafe one to raise. We believe
exactly the contrary to be true. There has probab-
ly been no year in the period covered by the report,
leo5-1s21, when potatoes, sold at the prices Of that
year, have not yielded a yofit to the grower who
was properly equipped for the work and who de-
voted the requisite attention to it.. But there is a
wide variation in prices, and there is no rule by
which one may govern himself with any measure OF
certainty Of reaching the best price. The theory is
widely prevalent that the price is so much higher
in the spring than in the fall that as a rule it pays to
hold potatoes over. But the records do not bear
out this belief. Holding potatoes has paid in some
cases during and since the war. but all Of these wears
have been abnormal, andtit is not safe to base judg-
ment on them. The really important facti is that po-
tatoes have been marketable in the fall, without
double handling, and without the cost and risk of
Storage at prices which, under all ordinary labor
conditions and with reasonable yields, will yield a
profit.
In the matter of yields, the averages for the
United States and for North Dakota respectively
tor the II year period are 95.1 and 9S.1 bushels. That
is decidedly too low. Potatoes, like all other crops,
are sensitive to weather conditions. But it would
uc interesting, H5t were PoSSlDAe, 10 KNOW Wnat Is
the average yield for potatoes on really we'll cult
waited fields. By this is not meant fields which are
given garden culture, where every plant may be said
to receive individual attention, but fields on which
there is expended close to the maximum OF what
may profitably be given under field conditions. In
asmuch as there arc thousands Of fields OF which,
the average yield will not reach so bushels, and
thousands which are abandoned altogether, there
must be other fields in great numbers where the
yield will double the general average. When a sim
gle acre has yielded 606>bushels the possibilities are
very large.
The one element that makes the chief difference
between a good crop of potatoes and a poor one
weather excepted-is labor. The difference in cost
between good seed and poor seed is negligible. A GER
tain amount of labor is necessary to the production
of any crop at all. The ground must be plowed, har-
rowed and planted. Some cultivation must be Civ
en-. Some spraying must be done. ltcosts as much
to dig one crop as to dig the other. Investment in
land, implements, ETC., is the same. There are grow
ers, then, who are growing crops which doubtless
double the average merely by the application Of a
little more labor. 1t is that little more labor which
makes the difference between a good crop and a
poor one, which cuts down the cost OF each bushel,
and which measures the difference between profit
adm loss. ~