MARKETING SOUTHERN-GROWN SWEET POTATOES. 45 
SHIPPING-POINT INSPECTION. 
The need for inspections at points of origin as well as in receiving 
markets has led to the development of a shipping-point inspection 
service in a number of States. In most instances tins service has been 
inaugurated by State departments of agriculture and with a few 
exceptions is conducted in cooperation with the Federal department. 
The use of this service, where it is now available or where it may be 
available in the future, should be valuable to sweet-potato shippers 
inasmuch as it is possible to determine the grade and condition of a 
shipment before it is moved. In many instances it would make 
central market inspections unnecessary. This service is not now 
available throughout the sweet-potato area, but it is being developed 
and extended rapidly. Its beneficial effect on shipping-point 
methods and practices is alone sufficient to justify shippers in cooper- 
ating with official agencies in establishing and maintaining such a 
service. 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 
It is not unreasonable to believe that under present conditions 
in the southern sweet-potato industry economic necessity will bring 
about a better adjustment in supply and demand. There is a ten- 
dency for the least efficient growers to discontinue commercial produc- 
tion, for the more expensively operate* 1 storage houses to become 
converted to other uses, and for inexperienced shippers to go out 
of business or combine with others in order to obtain the advantages 
of large-scale operations. While conditions are such that radical 
developments may occur to change the trend, the fact that marketing 
is becoming concentrated in fewer and more efficient hands tends to 
bring about more stability in the industry. 
Growers should recognize that they have problems of production 
and farm management, as well as marketing. If they intend to con- 
tinue growing sweet potatoes for the market, it is essential that they 
standardize and improve their varieties, increase their yields per 
acre, increase the percentage of Xo. 1 stock, and keep their flelcjs 
disease free through proper seed selection and the adoption of better 
production methods and practices. 
They should store for shipment or sell to storage-house operator- 
only well-ripened, disease-free, carefully harvested potatoes that con- 
form to the U. S. Xo. 1 grade in both size and quality. They 
should sell in local markets, eat at home, can, feed to livestock, or 
otherwise utilize in the producing districts all of the crop that is not 
suitable for shipment. 
Any change from one variety to another should be made only after 
considering carefully local conditions, market preferences, relative 
costs of production, susceptibility or resistance of the variety to 
disease, its adaptability to soil and climate, and its keeping quality. 
Growers should avoid the popular but unprofitable practice of chang- 
ing varieties and acreage with every temporary change in price or 
trade preference 
They should find it advantageous to cooperate with other growers 
in their respective communities in any sound, progressive plan for 
collectively grading, storing, curing, advertising, and selling their 
product. 
