Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1918 — SAY POTATOES SHOULD SELL FOR 50 CENTS BU. IN INDIANA [ARTICLE]

SAY POTATOES SHOULD SELL FOR 50 CENTS BU. IN INDIANA

Thousands of bushels of potatoes will rot and be thrown away in this part of the state, and potatoes this spring should sell for 50 cents a bushel, according to George Butzbach, a commission man, who made this statement in a speech before the Kiwanis club at South Bend. Butzbach says that in and around South Bend there are two or three times as many potatoes as can possibly be consumed in the community in advance of the new early crop. It is Mr. Butzbach’s prediction that literally millions of bushels of potatoes in the United States will be thrown away thia spring after being hoarded through the winter, the time when they should have been patriotically substituted for wheat and meats, permitting the meats and wheat to be used to feed our armies and to maintain the civilian populations of America’s associate countries. In spite of the presence in the country of 442,536,000 bushels of potatoes, many millions of bushels more than ever were raised before, potatoes have been held at high prices all winter long, and the excess which should have been used in substitution for wheat • and meats has been held from market and permitted to reach the present season of rot and wastage, Mr. Butzbach said. Less than one-fourth of the potato crop of last year has been consumed, and it is impossible to use the remainder before it rots.

The potato hoarder who failed or refused to market his potatoes last fall at $1.50 a bushel is going to have those hoarded potatoes on his hands this spring according to Mr. Butzbach, for the potato is on the way to a 1-cent-a-pound basis, or 50 cents a bushel, with the market so glutted as to make it difficult to handle all that must be offered.