Fortunes for Farmers 



affair was a preposterous gamble. New varieties 

 came forth every day, syndicates were formed to 

 deal in them, and all the wild enthusiasm, des- 

 perate scheming and sheer lunacy of the South 

 Sea Bubble came to the surface. The climax was 

 reached at the Smithfield Cattle Show, in Lon- 

 don, in 1903, which became an " exchange " for 

 potato gamblers. Outsiders took a hand — grocers, 

 drapers, chemists, and furniture dealers — people 

 who did not know a potato from a turnip — rushed 

 in, to rush out again shortly — without their 

 money. 



But the summer of 1904 was fine and favourable 

 for the potato crop. There was a huge yield, and 

 the prices were low, which checked the demand 

 for seed potatoes, as is usual. It is the same with all 

 booms — a period of scarcity raises prices, specula- 

 tion follows inflation, until the thing is overdone, 

 and a period of depression sets in, when shares — 

 or potatoes, or whatever is being gambled in — • 

 become suddenly unsaleable. All are sellers, none 

 buyers; there is a sickening scene of panic, and the 

 boom falls like a pack of cards. Thus it was here. 

 To make matters worse, the Eldorado had grown 

 but feebly, for the reason aforementioned, a 

 crushing blow to those who had bought them for 

 future delivery at .£4,000 per ton. Just as matters 

 were wavering, and none knew what might hap- 



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