Frost Takes Half the Potato Crop: Kennewick Growers Face Lean Season
A cold spring and killing frosts cut the early potato yield nearly in half, leaving growers with only 20 cars instead of the usual 40—but prices remain strong.
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Killing frosts and a cold, backward spring cost the potato growers of the valley nearly fifty per cent of their early crop. With 20 cars marketed to date by the Kennewick-Richland-Finley Marketing Union, the shipping season is almost over when under normal conditions there would have been at least 40 cars.
Prices have been very satisfactory, the lowest price being $34.00 a ton. Inspector V. W. Van Alstyne says the price will probably not drop below $30.00 before the crop is entirely cleaned up.
In speaking of the small crop Mr. Van Alstyne said: "The heavy frost we had in May not only made the crop from two to four weeks late and consequently robbed the grower of the cream of the early high prices but it materially reduced the yield. Not only were there fewer potatoes in the hill than usual but the big ones did not grow as large as they should and many of the small ones have been too small to qualify in the No. 1 packs. The second cutting of alfalfa has also retarded marketing as many of the growers neglected their potato digging to take care of their hay and as a result they will sell their potatoes on a declining market."
Not only has this year's experience demonstrated that the early potato crop can be successfully marketed under one control but the prevalence of scab has warned the growers that they must exercise extreme precautions in the selection of seed which is from disease-free fields.
About the only way to do this is either to devise some method of successfully growing seed or send a representative to non-irrigated districts to purchase seed from fields that can be visited and inspected before digging time.
Local potatoes have met with favor in the markets of the Northwest this year and have come in for the best quotations. A recent issue of the Daily Produce News, of Seattle, says: "The very last of the old potatoes, Yakima Gems, have disappeared. The street has been cleaned out completely, with none to be had at any figure. Remnants went at $35 to $36. A fine new potato is now arriving from Kennewick and is selling for $2.50 a hundred, the same as California."
“The heavy frost we had in May not only made the crop from two to four weeks late and consequently robbed the grower of the cream of the early high prices but it materially reduced the yield. — V.W. Van Alstyne”
Kennewick's potato farmers were at the mercy of frost and market swings—a story that echoes today's agricultural challenges with climate unpredictability and the need for seed quality and cooperative marketing.
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