THE POTATO 157 



per cent, of the total weight of ordinary potatoes 

 was being thrown out the dining car windows as 

 waste. This consisted of small, cut, diseased and 

 rough potatoes. 



The business of growing and marketing potatoes 

 should not be unUke any other manufacturing 

 enterprise, both the producing and the market- 

 ing are very important. A modern manufacturer 

 would not think of sending a shipment of goods to 

 a customer, a part of which shipment was culls 

 and of no use — and expect to hold his trade. 

 Yet the potato grower will sack for the consumer 

 10 to 25 per cent, of absolutely useless potatoes — 

 cut, diseased, rotten and frozen — for the buyer 

 to pay for and pay freight on and then discard. 



At one time the farmer or grower of produce of 

 all kinds held it to be good business to deceive the 

 buyer. The best berries and apples were put on 

 top — the culls beneath; rocks were weighed in 

 loads of grain and bad eggs sold for fresh ones. 

 The modern apple grower of the Northwest, mar- 

 kets train-loads of fruit of uniform quality, the 

 apple in the centre of the box in the centre of a 

 car being as good as any in the entire shipment. 

 This practice has made money. Western apples 

 often sell for more per one bushel box than East- 

 em apples per three bushel barrel. One reason 

 for this is that the barrel is often faced at the top 

 and bottom with good fruit and has the bottom 

 filled with comparatively poor. 



The average potato grower has not yet risen to 

 the same plane as the best fruit men. Putting 

 good ones on top is an old trick. It was common 

 practice in Colorado a short time ago to put good 

 potatoes at the bottom of the sack, fill the centre 

 with the poorest, jind put good ones on top. This 



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