{)28 Rural School Leaflet 



from scab and blight diseases. When stored in cool cellars, the shrinkage 

 is usually 5 to lo per cent. Sometimes it has been as high as 20 per cent, 

 and when rot is bad the shrinkage sometimes amounts to 50 per cent. 

 But under good conditions we should expect a shrinkage of about 8 per 

 cent. For every 100 bushels of potatoes stored in the fall, we should 

 then count on having only 92 bushels in the spring. If potatoes are worth 

 50 cents in the fall the shrinkage will cost four cents per bushel. 



A farmer who sells his potatoes in the fall can use the money to pay a 

 note and thus save the interest that it bears. Or he can invest the money 

 and receive interest for it. Or, better still, he can buy some good stock. 

 Anyway, he can use the money; but the farmer who stores his crop loses 

 the use of it. So another item of cost in holding potatoes is interest on 

 the money tied up. The interest on 50-cent potatoes for six months at 

 S per cent would be a cent and a quarter per bushel. 



One of the big items of cost is the extra work. This includes putting 

 the potatoes into the storage pit or cellar, sorting them again, and taking 

 them out of storage. The cost of this varies with conditions. Figures 

 given by a number of growers who frequently hold the crop average four 

 cents per bushel. 



The use of the storage cellar or building is another expense. This 

 should be included because the money invested in such buildings should 

 bear interest, and the buildings depreciate every year. About 10 per cent 

 of the value of the buildings, or that part used for storage, is what it costs 

 each year. This would amount to a fraction of a cent to two cents per 

 bushel — let us say, on an average, one cent per bushel. 



Fire insurance would ordinarily cost less than a cent per bushel. 



Assuming the potatoes to be worth 50 cents in the fall and adding 

 these items together, we have 



Average 

 (cents) 



Shrinkage 4 . 00 



Interest 1.25 



Extra labor 4 . 00 



Use of buildings i . 00 



Fire insurance .12 



Total 10.37 



These figures agree with estimates given by farmers, a number of whom 

 have said that an advance of 10 cents in price per bushel just about covers 

 the cost of holding. Thus, in order to make a profit on the holding, it 

 would be necessary to receive more than this amount. 



In a bulletin from the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, the 

 writer expresses the opinion that 50 cents for potatoes direct from the 



