THE POTATO KING

Otago Witness, Issue 3429, 2 December 1919, Page 58

THE POTATO KING

A ROMANCE OF INDUSTRY. The- greatest potato farming industry in this country—behind which lies the romantic story of a farm labourer's rise to fame—has been sold, it is stated, to a City of • Lei don firm for a sum bordering upon £2,000,000, says the Daily News. ' The business is that of Messrs W. Dennis end Sons, the great Lincolnshire and Covent Garden firm of potato growers and dealers. The-firm owns, or farms more than 10,000 acres, and the sale is described as the largest agricultural transfer ever made in this country. Tha purchasers, it is stated, intend to form a public company to run the business, and that some members of the Dennis family will remain identified with it as managers.

The head of the firm is Mr William Dennis, whose life story reads like a. fairy tale. Sixty years ago he riddled potatoes on a Lincolnshire farm at less than £1 a week. In the interval, with the help of his. sons, he has amassed probably a greater fortune than any farmer in the British Isles has ever done. *" *

Born at Horsington, Lincolnshire, in 1841, Mr Dennis was engaged from boyhood in various capacities on a farm, and then i became agent to axi old-established London firm of potato merchants In 1870 he began to buy and occupy freehold land, and, appreciating the possibilities of the rich soil of the district, he made notato growing his specialty. Ten years later, with the help of his son, Mr Joseph Dennis, he opened a wholesale dealer's business at King's Cross Potato Market, and subsequently established branches at Covent Garden and Leicester.

During the eighties he bought up several forms as th?y came into the market, and in 1909 the family owned approximately 4000 acres. In 1907 the trading. and farmin.tr interests of the firm were converted into a private limited liability company, the directors and shareholders consisting of Mr Dennis and his five sons.