Show FOR POTATO PATRIOTS the report ot of a general shortage ebor bage ta in the potato crop throughout the country la Is a species of information that no special wonder accustomed an aa we are to seeing fluctuations in even the went meat reliable products wherein the excessive yield or acreage of one to Is invariably accompanied by a reddo lion in quantity or inferiority in quality of another in other words we have learned the significance of the terms teris i wheat years corn cora yen years cotton years etc etc and have come thoroughly to understand that such designation ignation deB implies the ex success ot one crop only t 4 the ea orifice ot of one or of all of the mthm without undertaking to say eay at fehte moment which particular cereal or cw vegetable may claim the honors dt 0 yield and excellence tor for 1893 we are am in a position tion to say that the holu homely ely groveling earthy yet at some times time 1 succulent and at all times timea A potato most certainly can claim nothing perhaps it decided to rest on its ito laurel a season ort through sheer exhaustion from successive and easy previous triumphs has decided to go into vo voluntary lunter y retirement to give the others a chance or perhaps we make thin suggestion in fear and with hesitation its hard handed banded and clearheaded clear headed growers have come too nearly to the condition of a flock of sheep blindly following the leader whereby when 4 one farmer plants potatoes all do likewise and when the over production thui thus created proves unmarketable overy every one flies files to the other extreme and plants none at all the fame of the utah tuber has been so 0 o great that the news of a material shortage in the local crop is a real disappointment the conditions under which our potatoes met and vanquished all competitors have not changed for the worse since that proud moment J the sad truth that we have in a large degree lost the supremacy as to quality and are even away behind in quantity t admits therefore of but one explanation our farmers have bave become careless in cultivation negligent in the study of markets and inaccurate in estima t i ing needs acreage certainty and local tty ity of demand and probable source of supply i perhaps the following figures may 1 furnish a text for some hard thinking on the he martof our agriculturists taking the estimate of the department of agri A culture of the yield on a basis of n bushels to the acre for a full crop for the entire country we find that utah av this year produces only 88 bushels la 11 or only a little more than the average T for the whole union our neighbors ora have beaten us in this our own favored crop almost out of eight montana shows up with bushels per acre wyoming with nevada levaaa with r even colorado with 94 while idaho is the banner state of the union with wibb we do manage to beat arizona which t yields 75 and are equal to some of the southern states while kansas a and ll 11 d nebraska trail along in the remotest remote at rear each with 44 bushels pec pet acre the department declares that the s acreage last season was tully fully equal to 1 former years which is probably not y true so far as utah is concerned and it attributes the shortage to dry weather during the late summer aad early fall fali which in our casa is no excuse at all since there has bas been no particular lack of irrigating water which makes us independent of drouth confronted with a general deficit of 20 bushels lees leas to the acre than the fr country produced in the excel lout lent season of 1891 the potato eater this winter will turn hp his hungry eyes towards tow arile scotland ire land and germany prom from the former country where the crop has bas been XA 3 extreme extremely Jy good large shipments have already begun and now new york import erb ors assert that on m order to supply the de demandt dema manit uil the importations will continue until athe the middle of june when the new crop from the will begin to come ID ia it is ia not likely that in this far territory we shall be forced to humiliate out babies with 1 but it will be neither inappropriate nor unprofitable if the farmer folk among amon us every time they sti stick ck a fork into a steaming ete aming specimen shall reflect on the discreditable A JI 4 4 showing the territory has made in this one line and how regular and active and lucrative an export trade we might buildup build up by attending strictly to business as in the olden time |