American Agriculturist, April 5,1924 
New York Cabbage and Po¬ 
tato Growers Organizing 
for Better Marketing 
L. J. Steele 
T HE cabbage and potato growers of central 
and western New York are now organizing 
along cooperative marketing lines in a manner 
in which they feel will solve their difficulties. 
They have been attempting to cooperate in 
this territory for several years and the coopera¬ 
tive organizations which have been operated 
have served their members as well as it was 
possible for them to serve under the circum¬ 
stances of their organization and operation. 
A careful analysis of the situation, based 
on the best available statistics and on the 
experiences of the growers in the cooperative 
organizations, reveals the fact, however, that 
no organization that has yet existed in New 
York State has been of a type that could 
possibly cope with the situation it faced. 
Exhaustive study shows that the weaknesses, 
faults and abuses of the present marketing 
system are of such a basic and deep seated 
nature than an ordinary organization can not 
hope to make any headway in correcting or 
alleviating them. 
Faults of the Present System 
The growers find at the present time that 
they must have an organization that can con¬ 
trol a majority of the output of the territory 
before they can hope to remedy the faults that 
beset them under the present system. The 
faults of the present system of marketing 
have been classified under five heads, as 
follows: 
First. _ Indiscriminate dumping at harvest 
and at intervals during the season; second, 
intense internal competition; grower with 
grower and shipper with shipper; third, lack 
of uniform standards of quality in a great 
majority of shipments; fourth, limited outlet 
consisting of voluntary purchases only; fifth, 
guessing at desirable acreage to plant. 
In a consideration of the dumping problem, 
we find that every year just about harvest time, 
potatoes are placed on the market in quantities 
far in excess of a possible natural consumption. 
In some instances, recently, statistics show 
that 35 per cent, of the potato shipments and 
25 per cent, of the cabbage shipments of New 
York State are placed on the market in the 
first three weeks of the shipping season. These 
statistics also show that later in the season a 
very slight advance in price calls out an in¬ 
crease of from 100 to 200 per cent, in shipments. 
Organize to Control Extreme Gluts 
It is only through an organization that 
can control a large percentage of the entire 
output of cabbage and potatoes from the whole 
section of central and western New York that 
this problem of dumping can be eliminated and 
intelligent merchandising substituted therefor. 
In the matter of intense internal competition, 
we find that New York State has a greater 
number of individual potato producers than 
other sections growing a similar acreage and a 
similar tonnage. Investigation shows that the 
average commercial grower in Maine grows 
about twenty-one acres of potatoes annually; 
the average in Minnesota is above fifteen 
acres; while the best statistics indicate that in 
New York the average is not over five to seven 
acres per man. This great number of growers 
intensifies the competition for sales between 
the growers. We have many producers in 
New York State growing only one or two acres 
of potatoes, who find at harvest time that they 
do not have enough potatoes to justify very 
much trouble in their care and marketing; so 
they are sold to the first bidder in the easiest 
way without regarding to demand and with 
small regard for the price received. 
I 
Need for More Careful Grading 
A great majority of potatoes and cabbage 
from central and western New York are not 
carefully graded before shipping. This results 
in very serious waste of labor and transporta¬ 
tion costs, and burdens the good stock with 
the hauling and handling charge of the worth¬ 
less stock, and generally depresses markets. 
Particularly in the case of potatoes, this 
practice has created in the minds of the buyers 
throughout the terminal markets a prejudice 
against “State” potatoes. It is found prac¬ 
tically impossible to take a car of well graded 
western New York potatoes into the New 
Wk City market and sell them for their true 
value. For years, “States” have sold in the 
New York City market for about 65 or 75 cents 
per bag less than the Long Island potatoes 
nave sold for. This price differential has 
existed, likewise, between Maine and Long 
Island potatoes for a generation until the 
present marketing season. During this season, 
the Maine Potato Growers Exchange, handling 
niore than half of the output of the State of 
Maine has graded and standardized its pota¬ 
toes and brought them up to such a high 
(Continued on page 362) 
341 
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