A Spud Surplus Warning
Government officials warn local growers of a glut in the potato market that threatens to make the coming season a losing venture.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Truck growers who annually plant a considerable acreage of potatoes are warned by the department that there was, on January 1, 1915, a very much larger supply of northern-grown potatoes in the hands of growers and dealers than was the case January 1, 1914. Experience has demonstrated that a large hold-over crop of northern-grown potatoes which is in good condition and selling at a reasonable price when the early truck-crop potatoes reach the market means low prices—sometimes so low that the shipment of such crops nets a loss to the grower. Under such conditions a small acreage means a smaller loss than a large acreage. With 43,000,000 more bushels of potatoes in sight January 1, 1915, than were available at the same time last year and with a 1915 price of 43.2 cents as compared with 66.2 cents a year ago, there is little hope that the conditions will be better this year.
“Experience has demonstrated that a large hold-over crop... means low prices—sometimes so low that the shipment of such crops nets a loss to the grower.”
Farmers in the Kennewick area have long contended with the volatile nature of agricultural markets. Today's growers still face the same tension between speculative planting and the risk of catastrophic price drops caused by national supply surpluses.
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