THE POTATO MARKET.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1614, 4 December 1912, Page 10

THE POTATO MARKET.

SOME - SOUTHERN PROFITS.

"At';one. stage of the winter it looked as though potato-growers, who were holding heavy stocks and refusing to put their potatoes up at the time when a fair rata ruling,.were riding for a severe fall, but as spring advanced so did prices, the heavv' demand, from New South \\ ales being capable of absorbing all that New Zealand growers could supply. Some idea of what the, Australian demand has meant to New. Zealand growers. may be gleaned: from the following from the Oamoru "Mail", , .. "The value ,of the Australian niarket to North Otfigo potato-growers during the season just closed is. demonstrated by. the return compiled by the local Government grader, . who. has graded, in all, 53,680 sacks for Commonwealth ports. . Sydney took almost the whole of the shipments,- only a small quantity being sent forward to ■ the .Victorian capital, due mainly to the drastic nature of the Government inspection at. Melbourne. The price has'varied somewhat, but if an average price of .£6 10s; per ton is taken, the'resiilt is tbat'locnl growers must have received close upon 1 ,£30,000 from the Australian purchasing public for the portion of their crops exported to the Commonwealth;' The return does not include many of the lines sent 'from the Willowbridge district, as the bulk of these were graded by the Timaru grader. As . the yields were so. good , for the season it wasa most: fortunate thing that the Australian market was open to growers, otherwise prices would probably have been so' unrehiunerative as to ca\ise growers sonie; anxiety concerning the disposal of their, crops." i- "• Advices from Timaru state that a gre'u* many late potatoes will be put in. tHis; season, owing, to the wet time growers had'at the proper planting time. Reports froni Temukastate that, con*' si'denng the lateness of the season, the, lousiness doing- in seed potatoes is exceptional. ' This is attributed to tlio large proportion of the tubers which wer"e planted early being destroyed by the excess of rain; One' grower who planted 10. acres in the early spring.was not satisfied with the 'result,. and ploughed the. field up last week, sowing it again in oats. Among the high-priced Shorthorn • bulls recently- sold at- Buenos Ayres. .was. Earl, of Yeivderi 24th,'-a' three-year-old, .bred by the Boil; W. F.' D. Smith, who fetched* officially \£1487..- ♦" • S

The of the New South Wales, Government. Produce. Department (Jlr.'C. F: H'Cann), wh6 recently returned, from-England. where he had been representing" the State - as ' Trade . Commissioner, had something to say concerning the'imeat export tra'dejs fHeusaid dieshad found that' Aiistralia'"a'nd ; 'N6w " Zealand Wad little to learn in this respect. Much ■adverse criticism had been levelled against the nianner in which Australian meat was •prepared for export, and its appearance when ■it reached the London, market. The . fault, did not lie in the dressing or . GTadi'ng, however, but in the breeding. 'The Commonwealth ns a whole, and South Australia as - an individual State, -must, he said, pay-the same attention as Npw Zealand and the Argentine to securing the rif?ht stud ftock to produce n uniform and shapely article suitable, to tho .taste of the London market. •