POTATOES SCARCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 221, 29 June 1945, Page 2

POTATOES SCARCE.

RESULT OF THE BAD SEASON. PRICE FACTOR NOT BLAMED Many friends have been made by the Dakota variety of potatoes as a result of its propensity for keeping in the ground in a wet season, which it had ample opportunity for demonstrating this year. Aucklander Short Tops and Arran Banner are the varieties which have suffered most in the wet season. Merchants in Ashburton discount a popular belief that farmers have dug their potatoes and are holding them in hopes of the Government, increasing the price next month. The position, they say, is that potatoes are scarce because the yield for the county will be low as a result of the wet season and the effect of blight on early-sown varieties. In addition, many potatoes are still in the ground because it is too wet for digging. Farmers on even reasonably light land cannot get into some paddocks with only a chaff-cut-ter. Probably about GO per cent of the potatoes in the county have been dug so far, and up to 50 per cent of the early varieties were found to be rotten when dug. Now there is an unprecedented demand all over the country for potatoes for service'and civilian consumption and few are available, merchants in some centres having been forced to resort to impromptu rationing schemes. Generally speaking, potatoes have been a poor investment this year. Growers who faced up to the cost of preparing the land, bought fertiliser, and incurred other expenditure are watching their returns with concern. Some have expressed doubt whether they will regain their outlay. Digging is being hampered by continued wet weather and potatoes received in stores in Ashburton have been literally covered with mud. The ground was actually too wet to dig but the growers dared not wait any longer in case the potatoes went rotten.