The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 14, 1916, Page 5

ED“ RIVER valley Early Ohm " potatoes are a choiee ‘article - of " Eo ) trade with, the provisioners:* of - Y b S TSN Amerieas Lgke its hard wheat, 3 the valley’sicolored tubers are famed as | : far as commission houses. ecater fo 'a, i dlscnmmatmgv “taste ! for potatoes. % Loaded into box cars in the summer time ‘they will endure the southward: joumey 3 "~ with a fortitude that few potatoes pos- . gess. Penetrahng far towards the gulf .+ “on-the slow: ‘worming: freight tmns, they * bring up at- the epicure’s table in Dixie' S Tand; asfmn,p pawlenspaewhen : ‘3., they were dug from the rich mu ,of the. great ‘Red Rlver ey basm monthx " before. = ST New: York d New England | the ~ best homes pay the highest. price for the % _ finest potatoeis they can get, and ‘little " know: that the dainty morsels set before ' them.grew mealy and ‘gweet in the lan;l of good breads They do’not ‘lmow a.nd The big : They had come ‘on tbe a.mmal =potato- St Louis and Kansas: Gity pllxnma.ge to the Red River - valley..- eldy. of “the - They naturally gmvxtabed together, They - e : ds dts . all-had the same ambitign—to buy pota- skillful buyers Ehither to e With the . toes at the lowest: ‘price they could. It S farmers of Minnesota and North Dakota, was Sunday evening, and they stayed = andter pursuade the latter to yield up sé away from the picture show to talk ahout " large a share of the weaith their potatoes ‘potatoes. They. were-telling each .other /.7 xepresent as ommmmnwe and good b that the farmers had not done very well oyt i Y ~with their potato orgamzahon, and would to-do with it mot rise-to the odasion in 1916, Some- A few years hgo the circumstances were ' -of them knew of certain . farmers -who - all in fayor of the skillful buyers ard the ' conld be .depended upon : not o tselt { - bargain hunters from the potato marts.” ‘through' the association. That would . The farmers. used to get 22:to 2b cents - knock out a few props.. Some’of them & bushel and some of ad.to stand - had already closed deals with growers, g % 3 get even: even though the particular grower's cTop. ..+ that. Then the frexght traing'came, and outlook was not certain, 'and ‘the prices Sslle dngxed their “slow. way from siding - to ‘had ‘been:fixed, That would knock ouf a LRl er .. mone snd morée ew more. v “m’hed .over the level > / They came from ms.ny .ertxes‘ and wexe - of many political ‘and economit: opmions,‘ but they were all a unit on the proposi- tion that the farmers were so. -hard: hit this year they ' would " fork over their. ,potatoes at 50 cents a bushel:* Not: a{sou— ‘more ‘was to be paid by o Of “‘of them. The first man who raised was “ito bny cxgars ‘or: show some 6fher sxg-n of tinual’ war with 33 S 1shandat—lastth armer, were - ORGANIZATION FIRST HOPE OF PRODUCER -Northern Potato The ' lowly potato is kmg in the Red River valley. Early Ohios from this region are fought for in the markets. Yet the farmers have a | hard time getting a fair price. This year fail- ure of the railroads to furnish cars resulted in ”freezmg a large part of the crop, which had to be thrown into the river. | public warehouses to store the crop and. fairer treatment from the rallroads. The farmers need« They are at con- the commission men, who beat : Adown the price the prodneer gets. By organ- | ization they have ‘helped some, but they sympathetxc leglslatlon and stafe war need ouses. humlhahon It was agreed. next day was Monday. : WISE FARMERS GOT. “BETTER SPUD-PRICES ' Monday imorning bnght and early, as 13rthe~cnstom of farmers, the farmers’ wers: Sales Company opened: up. in: Moorhead, with: a ‘good market: all picked out and:arranged for-at Decatur and Peona, Ik, ’and some. pretty good chances 'in- the bigger ‘cities: = With “disappointed faces the buyers set: outfih their: joint mission; but a monkey ‘wrench had been thrown into the gear of their machine, and the shoxt of it is that growers who were:able.to put their pota- toes through the farmers company got 25 cents a - bushel net. more than:the vic- tim of the buyers: - They have sold .70 carloads up to date and there are about 30 :more to. come. The 200 farmers who own ‘stock in this.corporation (for’it is-no: longer ‘the weak; voluntai'& thing it ‘was" at: first) have saved themselves on. their 1916 potato:crop $12,000 to $15,000 up to date, 'by freeing themselves from the > burden of- ‘the: commission men. ‘This -is one of the thmgs fhe:r course in polmcel . But' the - taught them. Another thing it taught them ‘is the i ‘meed of warehouses along every railroad that veing the potato farms. It is only 'the old ‘established commission houses with busmese connections in the big cities who'have them now. Farmers must load from the tracks; 'or. use some competitor’s facilities. They can not build ware- houses to-handle.the potato crop because /it would take so many. there is not capital enough ‘for it. There was- talk' of doing this; but there | is the eertamty which- some have pointed out, that every community could not get one, and this -spoil the effort: - They need s6mething bigger than their own slender facilities, something equal in resources and:power to the facilities which the potato merch- “ants have, just as have ' the- big - wheat,: “buyers. They need for building their warehouses, just as strong state-assiste ance as they Wlready have for building the roads that lead to them. ¢ NEED OF CARS FELT BY MANY GROWERS * Then:there is the matter.of cars. They couldn’t get ~cars this summer. It is estimated by members of the: association that if cars could have ‘been -obtained at least 40,000 to" 50,000 bushels: more, 65 carloads, could have been:sold at $1.10 per-bushel net to the grower as compared ” with 'the 85 cents which - was all :they .could get from the warehouses,” - Pdta- toes froze for want of .cars;, and were- “dumped, in the rivers. ' Farmers waited . with their wealth: bes:de the - railroads, vainly pleading for cars: which® never - came. Some: warehouses got them, while many farmers could . So: many farmers_ sold to warehouses that- could get cars’ oX make -the potatoes safe ‘against frost, sacnficmg,the 8,) cents per - bushels to'save the rest. “If there:had been 2 good wheat trop - this ‘year we couldn’t have marketed even the potatoes we .-did,” ‘declared. M. W. - Gee 'of K:agness, secretary of the sales’” ‘company. It his always been ‘the same, only this year it was ‘worse. . Wheat' elevators with “big ety coxmech:ons have elways béen com- pet)tors'for the cars and always havee ““been favored over the potato growers. ' Even some of the orgamzed ‘warehouse-. “men have got.more than-their *share of “cars while we. fanners ‘with orders in: for days or-weeks could not get them. “What we need is a law:regulating. the 37 Much of Crop "‘Frozen and Throwh 1nto Rlver Beeailse of Lack of Cars S ' Move Product to the Markets on Tlme ; economy in: the field and mm:ket has < “would bring in" contention and probably “It was lack of cars that cuv “ down . our’ profits ~this" year. " spotting of cars to shippers. T know that. - the potato growers should ' not be .dis~ = criminated against as they. are. ‘Wheat is ~not. perishable, but potatoes ‘are at the . time:of year they are dug.”’ = ° Fred Weir; at present manager :of the: sales company . in Moorhead, says | that " another ‘hardship ‘the: potato men: endure & ¢ 18 the: lack of‘._ org: ized . " eeller loses:” 'I‘he “subJeet tp e ion¥ clause: perm;ts the buyer to reject the 19t~a 2