Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-02-22 | Page 16 | Vegetable Prices Reach High Notch

VEGETABLE PRICES - REACHHIGH NOTCH Potatoes, Onions and Cab-bages Cab-bages Soar to Unprecedented Unprece-dented Figures. Of all the food products that are eoar-inc: eoar-inc: skyward, none compares with the unparalleled advance of potatoes, onion on-ion and cahhares. A report from the commissioner of weights in New York City sta tea (hat onions pel line a year ao at $2.-"0 a hundredweight are selling today at 514. and cahhases that sold for $11 a ton are now veiling at 51 60. Although Al-though tiie prices of these vegetables are not o h it; h locally, as shown in the report re-port of the commisidoner of weights, nevertheless nev-ertheless an abnormal condition prevails. Ii. Ham-nek of Hancock Brothers, grocers, gro-cers, yesterday prave as the principal cause for the advance in the price of cfihhases the droucht that prevailed t hrouhout t he count ry last July. He p;dd th:T I'taii produced only one-third of the normal crop, and that at Christmas Christ-mas no L'lah eahh.isres were on the market. mar-ket. He further si a ted that, whereas, under un-der normal conditions, cahhasres could be procured in plentiful quantities from Texas and Oregon, this year California is the only stale which can he drawn upon. 1 As to potatoes. Mr. Han-'ock said that thre are . 0 bushels in fait Pake and rrih counties to his personal knowledge, h-jt owing to th impossibility of Ket -ting them to the depot for shipment without with-out freezing, the farmers are keeping them stored a way tn t heir cellars. The 'Idaho warehousemen, he said, have seen the condition that exists in the eastern markets, and are .shipping them east to pro fir hv the higher prices procurable. Mr. Hancock has just returned from Idaho, whre. he says, there are hundreds of farmers livlntr from thirty to forty miles off the railroad, where It Is so cold that the potatoes cannot be hauled for half a niilfi without freezing. He further declared de-clared that until a few cars of new potatoes po-tatoes make their entrance Into the piar-ket piar-ket i he hish prices will continue. The eastern markets cleared up all the onions several months ago, according- to Mr. Hancock. Owing to the droucht and freezing weather, the crop in the east was far below normal. He said that thre are onions now in the eround. which will he available as soon as the1 snow is off. when the prices of this vegetable will accordingly he lower.