Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1911 — THE POTATO FAMINE. [ARTICLE]

THE POTATO FAMINE.

A Short Crop All Over the Country Sends Price Sky High. Unless some section of the country comes to the front with a big crop of late potatoes the price of this staple article of food is likely to be almost beyond reach next winter. The early potato crop is almost a total failure the country over, because of the dry weather, and the price is now double what it was six weeks ago, and is probably the highest ever known in this country. In Rensselaer potatoes are now retailing at 60 cents per peck, which is $2.40 per bushel, and many of those sold here are shipped in, another unusual situation at this season of the year, as our gardeners generally raise sufficient to supply the local demand at one-third the present prices. J. H. Holden, on the former D. A. Stoner place at the northwest side of town, probably has the best crop of early potatoes in the county, but he did not have but a small patch of

sufficient perhaps to supply the demand of a couple of grocery stores for a week. Up in the Gifford district several hundred acres of late potatoes were planted and they might have been a fair crop with the late rains had it hot been for the ravages of a flying worm which has almost completely devastated all the fields. They come in swarms and eat up the vines of a large field in a night. As a consequence the prospects for any yield at all in that locality have gone glimmering. .To what heights the price of tubers will soar to before another crop is grown remains to be seen, but with the wholesale price now' at $5.25 a barrel for 2% bushels the prospect is not bright for any great reduction when the late crop comes in.