510 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



SOMETHING ABOUT POTATOES. 



While in the Grand Traverse region I 

 found potatoes were bringing only 8 or 10 

 cts. per bushel; and I could not help feeling 

 a little bit troubled about my own advice 

 lai-t fall. My young neighbor, Orville, was 

 then drawing those potatoes that he dug on 

 top of that big hill, and selling them at 28 

 cts I told him he had better keep them till 

 spring, or at least I advised him to do so. 

 A lot of people around Traverse City sold 

 their potatoes last spring for $1.00 a bushel, 

 when they were only 25 cts. the fall before. 

 Orville urged that they sometimes were 

 lower in the spring than in the fall; but I 

 reminded him they had been away up every 

 spring for the last four or five years. Well, 

 he sold all but about 70 bushels which he 

 put in the cellar, and now they are worth 10 

 cts. instead of 28, or at least that was the 

 price the first week in April. 



There is a lot of uncertainty about these 

 things. Two or three years ago I stayed 

 over night with a bee-keeper near Traverse 

 City who had about 3000 bushels of potatoes. 

 If they were sold at a fair or usual price it 

 would pay off the mortgage on his farm. 

 He kept them until they began sprouting in 

 the cellar, so that something had to be done 

 with them. As the price kept going down 

 he finally hauled them to town, and sold 

 them at about 20 cts. Just as soon as they 

 were oflf his hands the price began to creep 

 up, and in ten days more he could have got- 

 ten between 40 and 50 cts. This advance in 

 price would have cleared the mortgage and 

 put a little money in the bank for a rainy 

 day. He did not knew what was coming, 

 and nobody knew. In view of all these 

 things, I believe our best farmers have 

 decided, as a rule, to sell as soon as the crop 

 is harvested, whenever it ^brings a fair or 

 reasonable price. If you have a good cellar 

 for keeping potatoes, of course it is a very 

 good thing to keep over a certain amount. 



Now, here is another thing that is a fear- 

 ful injustice to the farming people. While 

 one could not get more than 10 cts. for the 

 very finest fancy potatoes in Traverse City, 

 the grocers were retailing them at 40. If 

 they bought at all they paid but 10 cts. ; but 

 when they sold it was 40 cts. I said right 

 off, ' ' Why, bless your hearts, friends, why 

 don't you peddle your potatoes through the 

 city, say at 30 or 35 cts., or enough lower 

 than the markets to make it an object to 

 buy?" They replied that that was exactly 

 what they had been doing to even up things 

 when such a margin existed; but just re- 

 cently an ordinance had been passed forbid- 

 ding the farmers peddling out the stuff they 

 grow. 



Now, friends, we are running against the 

 same problem that meets us when some 

 small bee-keeper peddles his honey around 



town for less than it is worth. You see 

 there are two sides to this question; but I 

 for one am heartily in favor of letting the 

 bee-keeper, the potato-grower, or anybody 

 else who grows stuff on the farm, have the 

 privilege of going around to houses and cut- 

 ting off the middlemen whenever the mid- 

 dlemen want too big a slice. 



A good friend who has been in the grocery 

 business suggests right here, ' ' But, Mr. 

 Root, the grocer has to deliver his potatoes 

 nowadays, and almost every thing else. 

 People order by telephone; and don't you 

 think it is worth a nickel to carry a peck of 

 potatoes half a mile or more to anybody 

 who happens to want them ?" * Yes, that is 

 true; and it is worse with potatoes than 

 with honey. But here, again, is an excel- 

 lent argument in favor of letting the farmer 

 take a load of potatoes and carry them 

 around to the houses. He can deliver 

 cheaper than the grocer. But then there is 

 another thing— farmers do not come around 

 regularly. They may not come at all. You 

 are out of potatoes, and must have them. 

 But after summing it all up, I am sure it is 

 not right for a grocer to pay 10 cts. for 

 potatoes and sell at 40. Som<^body puts in 

 another plea for the grocer. He bought his 

 l^.'Otatoes last fall, and paid 25 or 30 cts. a 

 bushel for them. Can you expect him to 

 carry them around to his customers, and 

 sell them for less than cost ? And can you 

 also expect him to buy more potatoes, even 

 at 10 cts , when he is not sure he can dis- 

 pose of all he has on hand that cost him 

 perhaps 28 or 30 cts.? May God help us in 

 all these perplexing problems to be fair and 

 brotherly, for the good Book says we are to 

 love our neighbor and to consider his inter- 

 ests in every transaction, exactly as we 

 love ourselves and consider our own inter- 

 ests. Now, while we are talking about 

 potatoes I wish to copy something startling 

 from the Rural Neiv-Yorker. If I had come 

 across it in almost any other journal I would 

 have thought there might be some mistake 

 in the figures: 



THE HIGH PRICED POTATO. 



The National Department of Agriculture has arranged 

 with the Rev. J. R. Lawrence, of Middleboro, Mass., to 

 use his farm for potatotiial grrounds this year, Mr. L.'s 

 work last year with 500 varieties having been very sat- 

 isfactory. This season he will I a ve about 800 varieties 

 of potatoes, which will be the largest collection of vari- 

 eties in a single field in the world. One variety, the El 

 Dorado, is the most valuable potato grown, being worth 

 $2250 a pound. To secure the planting of this potato, 

 Mr. Lawrence had to sign a guarantee not to allow a 

 slip or an eye of the spud to leave his premises. 



I once paid $10, as some of you may 

 remember, for a single potato. Mrs. Root 



* I just heard of a woman who entered a meat-store 

 and ordered half a pound of steak, and she said it would 

 have to be delivered immediately, after which order she 

 sailed out of the store and " sailed " down the walk 

 toward her, home, while the boy followed right behind 

 her with the eight ounces of meat. And this is what 

 some call "style." Yes, and it is style, and it is off 

 the same piece as Mrs. Chadwick's style. Her name 

 may not be familiar to the whole United States just as 

 it is here in Northern Ohio. So long as people insist on 

 making the butcher and grocer deliver at once an arti- 

 cle weighing only half a pound, they must expect to 

 pay the grocer, the baker, etc. 



