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CHAPTER XVI 



DINING CARS, HOTELS, AND RESTAURANTS 



THERE are no keener students of the food 

 problem than the best hotel, restaurant, 

 and dining-car men. 



Two vitally essential things appeal to them — 

 quality and economy. 



Such men as J. F. Smart of the dining-car service 

 on the New York Central Lines; Sam Button of the 

 Albany Hotel, and Col. Morse of the Brown 

 Palace. Hotel, Denver; Ford Harvey and A. T. 

 Hilliard of the Fred Harvey Eating Houses and 

 dining cars on the Santa Fe, and K. L. Eagan, 

 formerly of the North Side Inn, Jerome, Idaho, 

 know more about potatoes than 95 per cent, of 

 the growers. 



It would be a splendid thing if growers could 

 meet occasionally with these large critical buyers 

 and users. The caterer to great numbers of 

 critical people is willing and anxious to pay for 

 superior quality in a product, for in the case of 

 potatoes the best and highest priced will often be 

 the cheapest. He would tell the grower that the 

 smooth, even, medium-sized potato, could he 

 get quantities of them for the entire annual supply 

 and be sure that entire sacks and shipments would 

 be all alike, would be worth 25 to 50 per cent, more 

 than the product now purchased. 



The hotel man wants a potato of good quality — 

 a tuber that has been evenly and uniformly grown 

 to maturity with no check at any time, then well 



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