THE POTATO 425 



Stockton tuber as compared to five and ten years 

 ago, Mr. Grubb states that the local product has 

 gained wonderfully in point of quality and that its 

 standard to-day is of the highest mark. This, he 

 said, was due to the fact that such shippers as 

 Mr. Platt have come to learn that the trade de- 

 mands the best obtainable and that anything less 

 than the best is overcome by competition and to 

 that extent unprofitable. The exact conditions 

 imposed upon the shipper by the trade necessi- 

 tates the shipper holding the grower unrelentingly 

 to the best possible qualities obtainable from the 

 soil. 



"Those things which make for quality have been 

 bounteously provided the Stockton delta regions. 



"Here, he pointed out, is found the wonder- 

 fully rich, fertile, light peat soil so peculiarly 

 adapted to the highest cultivation of potatoes. The 

 sun shines from a growing standpoint every day 

 in the year, the climate is all that could be desired. 



"Discussing the local tuber from a distribution 

 and supply phase, Mr. Grubb called attention to 

 the fact that Stockton to-day is shipping practi- 

 cally all points west of the Missouri River and only 

 yesterday shipped two cars to Kansas City, the 

 very centre of a much boasted potato area long 

 since famed among the tuber fields of the country. 

 That the wonderful breadth and scope of Stock- 

 ton's supply territory might be better emphasized 

 the visitor directed attention to the fact that 

 the Platt Produce Company alone as a single firm 

 ships out of Stockton annually more than one half 

 as large a crop as the noted Greeley district of 

 Colorado. So extensive, says Mr. Grubb, are the 

 fields of patronage for the Stockton product that 

 the Easterner cannot grasp the immensity of it 



