240 The Sweet Potato 



iastically predict the development of an important ex- 

 port trade in sweets as scientific storage-houses become 

 more widely used. 



MARKETS 



The markets to be patronized will influence to an im- 

 portant extent all of the pre-marketing operations of 

 the grower. The requirements of different markets 

 should be studied and the advantages and disadvantages 

 of each carefully compared. This will necessarily have 

 to be learned largely by experience. Most growers 

 believe with good reason that they can dispose of their 

 crop more satisfactorily in territory within their reach 

 by wagon, provided the quantity is not so great as to 

 flood the market. Many things favor the home market. 

 In practically all parts of the South it has been the 

 main dependence as an outlet and even so has not been 

 over-supplied when marketing was distributed over the 

 entire year rather than a few months at digging time. 

 There is nearly always a scarcity of sweet potatoes, even 

 in the principal production areas, during the spring 

 months. Many growers, however, do not yet have 

 proper storage facilities, the capital or the inclination 

 to hold their potatoes for advanced prices, and when 

 the home markets are already abundantly supplied or 

 when the price is low in local centers which are over- 

 supplied, the growers must turn to the larger cities. 

 It must be remembered that over one-half the total pop- 

 ulation of the United States is within a radius of 500 

 miles of New York City. Consequently this area has 

 a consuming power equal to all the remainder of the 

 United States combined. 



The location of a suitable market is of first im- 



