Potato Crop Harvest

 

Waupaca Record

October 10, 1907

 

POTATO CROP IS BEING HARVESTED

Market is Strong at Forty Cents

The Quality is Gone – A Shortage of Cars

 

            Comparatively few potatoes are being marketed this week as the farmers are busy harvesting the crop.  The disastrous effect of the frost of Oct. 10, 1906, is still too fresh in the minds of potato growers to permit of delay in getting their potatoes under cover.  About three-fourths of the crop will be harvested by the end of the week and by Oct. 20 the entire crop will have been harvested.  This is about ten days earlier than in previous years.

            The quality of the stock is very good and the market is steady at 40cents for good stock with a prospect for higher prices later in the season.  At this time last year the market was 25 cents and 30 cents and much of the crop was damaged by frost.

            The car situation still continues to be bad and the dealers are hampered by the shortage as they are unable to fill their orders.

            An average of from 75 to 80 loads have been daily marketed in Waupaca this season and but a very small percent of the crop has yet been sold.

            The recent report from New York discussing the crop thruout the United States says that the quality is unusually good and the yield very fair.  In New Jersey the acreage is 10 percent larger than usual.

            Reports from up-state and Michigan are that there will be a good crop and that growers are about ready to ship.  In Wisconsin they have had excellent growing condition up to date and with favorable weather from now on growers look for an average yield of fine quality.  Some early stock is being shipped from Wisconsin.  The quality is the best in years.

            “The Maine stock is beginning to arrive.  Those who have been on the ground estimate the Maine crop at 65 percent.

            The potato crop in all sections is maturing late.  This is especially true in Maine.  In some sections the farmers have no storage room and if there should be an early winter many of them might not be able to get their crop harvested and a great many of the potatoes would freeze in the ground.

            “There is more or less complaint made regarding the up-state stock.  The potatoes are really very good, but are coarse and large, which is the reason for the complaint.  There is also considerable green stock mixed with other up-state potatoes.

                                                                        NOTICE

            The potatoes under experiment on the farm of S.S. Chandler, 1-1/2 miles southeast of the city of Waupaca, will be dug on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11^th and 12^th.  Comparison will be made between the yields of the sprayed and unsprayed areas.  Farmers are urged to attend and discuss matters relative to spraying with Bordeaux Mixture as a prevention against blight.

                                                                                    J.G. Milward