The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 4, 1917, Page 12

AR R T G A e v o s e U.S.Potato Grades Announced New Federal Rules May Mean Readjustments in Prices, = EDERAL grades for potatoes promise to control the mar- keting of this year's spud crop. Grades ‘for potatoes have long been wanted by everybody in the business. Farmers have seen themselves euchered out of part of their profits because their po- tatoes were not graded, and the middle- men who handle them have asserted that lack of grades caused many pota- toes to be discarded at terminals, and raised havoc in their business. Part of the confusion of the potato business is due to the fact that there were no grades anywhere recognized as stand- ard, and that each big city, or rather the commission men in control of the potato supply of each city, established their own standards. These standards have usually been white or red, long or round and have. included the locality in which they were produced. Thus in the New York market there have been Main potatoes, Long Island potatoes, Jerseys, etc.; in Philadelphia “Eastern shore” (that is Virginia), Jerseys, etc.; in Minnea- polis, Wisconsins or Minnesotas, and so on. Undoubtedly each of these des- ignations meant something in each locality when the potatoes were being passed from first handlers to jobbers and the wholesale trade, but back on the farms there was no standard. The farmers had to sell for whatever price was offered after each buyer looked at the potatoes. TWO GRADES NAMED FOR 1917 POTATOES This may have had its good points, especially where there remained a fair- ly open market, and each producer could get a price based on the quality put into his potatoes through carefully selected seed, careful sorting, good care ete., but nevertheless there has been a demand felt for many years that there should be some sort of a standard. That demand has now been.met for the -first time by the bureau of markets of the United States government, which has issued “document No. 7" contain- ing the proposed new grades. While the way in which the proposed grades will be made effective, has not become generally known, it will probably be through acquiescance of the potato handlers in accepting the grades. It is hardly likely that compulsory grades will be established and federal inspec- tors be put in charge of grading. At least that fact has not been announced. But this much is of supreme import- ance to potato growers- everywhere: grades are going to be in effect through some means, and growers should know all they can learn about this new thing in marketing. The government recom- mends: “The No. 1 grade shall consist of sound potatoes of similar varietal char- acteristics, which are practically free from dirt or other foreign matter, frost injury, sunburn, second growth, cuts, scab, blight, dry rot, and damage caus- ed by disease, insects or mechanical means. The minimum diameter of po- tatoes of the round varieties shall be one and seven-eighths inches, and of potatoes of the long varieties one and three-fourths inches. “The No. 2 grade shall consist of potatoes of similar varietal character- istics, which are practically free from frost injury and decay, and which are free from serious damage caused by dirt or other foreign matter, sunburn, second growth, cuts, scab, blight, dry rot, or other disease, insects, or me- chanical means. ' The minimum dia- meter shall be one and one-half inches.” MEANS MUCH MORE WORK FOR FARMERS The circular states that “reasonable tolerances are allowed for variations incident to commercial grading and handling.” If lived up to the No. 1 grade will in- sure consumers getting a pretty fancy article, and by the same token it will enforce upon producers the necessity of putting on the market, a potato well nigh free from any imperfections entailing much expense. Freedom from frost injury means that the —utmost pains will have to be taken in all the northern sections during these next few weeks of potato harvest. Freedom " from cuts or “other mechanical means" means that potatoes may be de-graded through letting a few injured spuds get into the bins from the fields when they are picked up. In sections like the Red River valley, where a little rain &t digging time may coat potatoes with Storage and Entire Marketing Business POTATO CELLAR ON FARM This diagram made by the extension department of the North Dakota Agricul- tural college, shows a type of safe potato cellar partly underground and covered with straw, manure and earth. the crop this season. mud fhat is hard to get off, farmers will have to be especially painstaking to see that the mud does not get on them, or they may not grade No. 1. The No. 2 grade is a little less strict, hut the farmers who do not aim for No. 1 may find themselves even below No. 2. The federal wheat grades in operation, contained some painful sur- prises. 2 Granted that there ought to be grades for potatoes generally, what is going to be the effect of these grades on the 1917 crop and on the farmers who pro- duced that crop? Much will depend of course on the way ‘“reasonable tol- erances” are interpreted, but will the grades -be applied when the farmer hauls his crop to the railway, or will the potatoes be bought on general ap- pearance, graded afterward, and then a price be slapped on them at the next exchange that will pay for the grading and an exorbitant extra profit besides? And will the fact that potatoes are graded be used to slap on an additional extra profit at each succeeding step in the devious way from producer to con- sumer? Will the potato grades be applied as the federal wheat grades are now being applied at country elevators—that is, by guess by the .buyers, who have no time to make the minute determina- tions required, and a big “margin of safety” be left to cover up any errors? Such cellars will be greatly needed to help hold In other words will the new principle of grading be used by the potato handlers to squeeze a little more out of the farmer and out of the consumer? SYSTEM MAY REQUJRE MONEY AND MACHINERY Very few farmers have screens across which to run potatoes to grade them for diameter, This operation calls for machinery, power and labor. Will farmers who have not this equip- ment get any benefit from grading under the new rules, or must they take their potatoes to some receiving ware- house, and then pay a toll to have them run-over a screen? And what is to be done with the “dockage”? What will be done with the undergraded potatoes .in the re- ceiving warehouses where practically all the grading will have to be done? ‘Will these extra potatoes be kept by the commission houses and sold at a profit to themselves as grain dockage is now kept and sold, or will it be turn- ed back to the producers free, as grain. dockage ought to be? There will be many people in all towns who will be glad to buy cull potatoes at the lower" price they will bring, and will this willingness be capitalized by the mid- dlemen for their own benefit, or will whatever benefits are derived be dis- tributed to the growers? But ‘more than all, farmers will be. UNDERGROUND SECTIONAL VIEW Another view of the same cellar showihg how a simple pit in the ground banked up with the excavated earth, makes a very useful potato storehouse. dimensions: | Note the Help Supply Seed The fact that in some sections there is a shortage of good seed while in others there is a surplus makes it pos- sible for the committee on seed stocks of the TUnited States department of agriculture to help in the distribution of these surpluses. The committee wishes, therefore, to locate all avail- able stocks of good seed of agricul- tural crops, especially wheat, oats, rye, crimson clover (in the hull or hulled), and hairy vetch. The committee will be glad if any- one, farmer or dealer, will send infor- mation in regard to the quantities and prices of seed of the above sorts which he can offer for sale f, o. b. his ship- ping point, bags extra or included as the case may be. The information should give in each case the name of the variety (especially in the case of grain crops), condition of the seed as to purity, year grown, and the price. The committee will then undertake to get such information into the hands of those who want the seed. The com- mittee hopes that this request will re- ceive wide circulation and an imme- diate response, as it is .now time to get seed in the hands of planters for fall use. Address committee on seed stocks, United States department of agriculture, Washington, D. C. = PAGE TWELVE . duced last year, anxious to know what basis of price or method of inspection will be used on the potatoes that are not graded when bought from them—say potatoes bought on the farm. If a farmer with- out grading machinery sells to a buyer on his farm, will the buyer assume that because his potatoes are ungraded, they are also of little value and therefore offer a measly low price? How big a portion of the crop will pass from growers’ hands into the trade without getting the benefit (if it is a benefit) from the grading? Last year the United States produced 285,000,000 bushels of potatoes. This year it is scheduled to produce 462,000, 000 according to the September govern=- ment crop repqrt—the biggest crop by 42,000,000 bushels that has ever been produced in the United States, and 176,000,000 more than last year. Of course a large part of the crop has al- ready been marketed, for instance that grown throughout all the South, and second crops are now growing in some sections. But more potatoes still re- main to be marketed than were pro- and federal grades are going to be a factor in fixing prices for this big end of the buying, even where potatoes are not graded. WILL POTATO PRICES FOLLOW WHEAT PRICES? Prices are based on grades for all commodities that are graded. With new grading rules, there will inevitably be a new price schedule. Will this new price be a reduction of 29 per cent as it was when wheat prices were fixed on the new wheat grades? - Potatoes now are selling in Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburg and a good many other cities at approximately $1.25 a bushel, the price varying a little according to dif- ferent factors. If the new grades re- sult in a general slashing of 40 cents a bushel to the growers, bringing po- tatoes down to around 80 or 85 cents, a good many potato growers will lose all they put into potato culture this season. But will the consumers get the bene- fit of the producers’ loss? Will these potatoes be sold to the consumers dur- ing the winter at what the middle- men paid for them, plus a reasonable ‘profit per bushel, and holding charges —or will potatoes bought from produc- ers at around 85 cents a bushel be held a few months and then be sold to con- sumers at $5.50 a bushel as they were last winter? If they are so sold, then the applica- tion of grades would be coming at a < ..most inopportune time; and will not have accomplished, what it was ex- pected would be accomplished, namely the assuring of low prices to consum- ers and saving the potatoes on the farm for feeding purposes. EASY TO BRING PRESSURE ON FARMERS In the absence of information as to how the potato grades are going teo work out it behooves every farmer with potatoes to do some planning of his own. Things are well adjusted to compel acceptance by the, farmers of whatever the grading rules may mean, The biggest crop on record is impend- ing, and farmers will be told if they do not care to sell under the condi- tions offered, there are plenty of other growers who will—in the face of an “overproduction”. Most farmers have not facilities for holding any great amount of potatoes, and most of the - crop must go - to market. . If there are those with their own storage facilities who may wish to hold for the inevita- ble mid-winter price bulge, it will be pointed out to them that only properly graded potatoes in licensed publie warehouses can be used for security te borrow money—and again the pressure to sell will be strong. Farmers will await with interest an announcement from the food adminis- tration as to what was done in its con- ference with potato middlemen at Chicago September 20-22. After the conference all information was refused, even to the favored trade journals, with the statement that anything for the public would have to come from Mr. Hoover. In the meantime farmers ought to be careful about sorting and handling in order to come up as close- ly as possible to the federal proposed grades, and prepare such storage facil- ities as they may have for holding their crop in good condition in order that there be no temporary glut of market and sag in prices, during the readjuste ment,