Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1901 — EATING EUROPEAN POTATOES. [ARTICLE]

EATING EUROPEAN POTATOES.

Ireland, Scotland and Belgium Helping to Feed Uncle Sam. For the first time .in eight years this country has been obliged to go abroad to make the supply of potatoes in market adequate to the demand. Four-fifths of the potatoes that have reached New York in the past few weeks have come from abroad. Within a week nearly 200,000 bushels have been received in that port nnd all told over half a million bushels have reached there. The potatoes come from Scotland* Belgium and Ireland, where the crop has been good, while on our side of the ocean It has been the worst in a decade. The farmers who have a good supply have been holding back for better prices, putting the-pro-duct in cellars and storehouses. Those who have sold recently have demanded as high as 93 per barrel, which has brought the price up to 94 and 93 at a time when potatoes are usually cheap. Potatoes abroad can be bought for 70 cents a barrel. There is a duty of 25 cents a bushel and this, with some other charges, bringfi the cost of potatoes from Europe to 91’~0 per barrel on the pier in New York. New York consumes about 25,000 bushels of potatoes daily.