- lng of the Board when two

TO THE FARMERS OF P. E. I.

The. Undersi'gned. as members of the P. E. T. Potato Marketing Board. desire to make their Position clear to the general public in relation in the present controversy.

1. Mr. MacDonald did not consult the Potato Marketing Board concerning the Plebiscits held last Spring; if he had done so

we would have pressed for definite questions instead of the ballot that was mailed out. 2. The compulsory one-man Pool plan was submitted to the

Potato Marketing Board as a finished product without any previous consultation as to its construction or purpose and after discussion was passed in principle by a vote of five for and four agamst. The details were. later discussed by a meet- members were out of the Prov- lnce.

3. The majority of the Board have named D. A. MacDonald to be the sole Selling Agency for all P. E. I. potatoes and have imposed upon the dealers and farmers the same licence fees as were enoctedvduring the past two years. These fees it is proposed will be deducted from the first shipment of potatoes to the Pool.

4. We pleaded with Mr. MacDonald to cut out the compulsory feature from the Pool and that if he believes the Pool system to be a benefit to the Producers he should try it on a volun- tary basis and if it worked there would be no trouble in hav- ing practically every potato in the Province in the Pool. This he positively refused to consider and demanded all or nothing stating that all he uould get would be the skim milk and the dealer the cream.

considered

5. The present meetings being held have not been any other

nor authorizd by the Potato Marketing Board or recognized Agency that we know of but are solely the action of Mr. MacDonald asking the farmers to have him handle all their potatoes working on his own experience of last year and his own judgment of policy.

6. We understand that after the Charlottetown meeting a com- promise plan of action was submitted to Mr. MacDonald as chairman of the Board. The Board was not called to COIlSIdLI' it nor was it mentioned at our last meeting held October 5th which meeting was apparently called to authorize Mr. MacDon- ald to represent Prince Edward island at a potato meeting in Ottawa.

recent publicity regarding the new freight rates. We would point out that the agreed charges- frcight contract recently announced was negotiated by the following Committee:-Mr. Rand Matheson. Executive Secre- tary Maritime Transportation Commission, Mr. J. O. C. Camp- bell. Q.C., representing the P.E.l. Government, and Messrs. A. A. Scales. E. D. Reid. L. H. Poole. G. E. Full, representing the

7. With reference. to the

Potato Industry and D. A. MacDonald representing the P E. I. Potato Marketing Board. Actually the Board's only function was to confirm the arrangement of negotiations.

arrived at.

B. The Marketing Scheme of last year was an entirely voluntary one and there is no foundation for the statement that a com- pulsory pool is the only way to get assistance, from Ottawa.

9. The Board applied to Ottawa for a renewal of last year's Scheme. The replies have not been placed before the Board. but information would indicate a lower advanced price than was made last year.

10. This type of scheme qa not government support and is not in any way designed to lose money so that the next time pota- too: look like being surplus in the U. S. and Canada. the ad- vance undcr a Pool Cooperative Marketing Scheme will be set so low as to be of no value to the grower. Any other idea of this plan is Just bluff.

As a result of a life spent in business in P. E. I. and in marketing potatoes along with other business responsibilities we opposed the Compulsory Pool with one-man control because we feel that the not returns would be less than the open market would give. and based our thoughts on the following facts-

nine, million bushels. North America four hundred million bushels of potatoes and as our potatoes are sold in competition with all other eastern potatoes. one area cannot influence the market either way by establishing an autocratic soiling Agency, and any firm who tries to will go bankrupt.

1. P. E. I. produced

2. Our customers buy P. E. I. potatoes because of quality. service and price and the scheme is so drawn up as to lower the aervlce, to market minimum quality. and to demand top prices. This scheme will divert the customers to other areas first and they will only come here when they have to or to re- ceive bargain prices.

3. From 1924 to 1934 the Potato Growers Association conducted the Pool system for Marketing See.d potatoes and at the start they had ninety-five percent of the Island Seed in the Pools What happened? - Too many potatoes over one desk depres- sed ths price. The independent price was so much higher that the Association abandoned the Pool system and came down from handling ninety-five percent of the Seed to fifteen per

cent. and then were unable to render fair service to their members. 4. Take away personal contact-goodwill and past service and

substitute. as the scheme does. an impersonal one desk be- tween the trads at this end and the prospective customer at the other end and our customers will turn elsewhere as any customer will do large or small in purchasing any quantity.

5. Financing such a scheme is a big problem and the Board or the Pool is in no -position to make prompt payments and can only pay advances as funds come in. and settle moved and paid for. In other words, the plan can only be financed by the returns from the farmers' own potatoes.

6. As individuals. we are not conceited enough to believe that after thirty to forty years experience in marketing potatoes that we are competent singly or as a team to undertake to handle with any measure of success the marketing of the P. E. I. potato crop. Ten million dollar business in a perishable product. like potatoes. is really big business. and any errors in Judgment will reflect drastically on the net return of a Pool.

1. With only the P. E. T. potato crop withdrawn from the free market. we cannot help but end up in the position-that all other areas will get the advantage. of the goodwill and patron- age of the purchasers.

8. Remember two years ago when the attempt was made to in- fluence the market by issuing orders as to the price to oe paid to the growers here. The attempt. proved to be dis- astrous for those bvho paid attention to Mr. MacDonald's ord- ers. The Market steadily declined in spite of the Board's ideas that by withholding, the market would meet their ideas.

one-desk selling plan may sound fine principle of merchandising that it recovering lower returns buyer, the

9. The proposed autocratic but is so wrong in the can only and up in all the farmers and as it is so arranged that then II "0 DU!" farmer will never know his loss.

think carefully before you mark your ballot, and be sure to vote! Freedom once lost is not easily regained- llgned.

G. ELLIOTT FULL. Hunter River

I. H. POOLE. Montague

P. J. KENNEDX. Kenslngton.

DEAi.ERSi PROPOSAL

In view of the suggestion of Mr. D. A. MacDonald that the. farm- ers should vote out the Marketing Board if they do not approve of a COIIIPIIIIOYY OIIB-dell!-Ielllnl Pool. the Potato Dealers Association sub- mits the. f.oliowlng;-

(A) Following Provincial Government suggestions. the dealers are preparing to become an incorporated body. As such. they are quite prepared to work with a further suggestion that a province- wide organization of potato growers be set up. and from the execu- tives of both bodies, with the larger number coming from the grow- e.r's association. I Potato Board for the Province.

(3) This Board shall decide who shall be authorized

(a) to purchase and sell potatoes in quantity lots in P.E.I.

(b) to discipline where eve: necessary those engaged in th-: markcting of potatoes who do not abide by the regula- tions set forth by the Potato Board

(C) to raise. funds for the purposes of the industry on the basis of volume, rather than by taxing the farmer on an acreage basis .

(cit to issue a daily -market report. as now practised else- where lor the guidance. of all concerned

(e) to arrange publicity for P. E. 1. potatoes

(1) to carry forward all necessary measures required to protect the potato industry from diseases which are common in other places

(g) to watch out and arrange for freight and tariff nego- tiations to the best interest of the industry

(h) to prepare and present the views of the industry to the

various governmental bodies as required.

, This Potato Board would employ a full-time secretary. within the Department of Agriculture.

It will be remembered that for many years the late J. Wilfred Boulter, who was the head of the Farmer's organization, was tnr. leader in (all activities in connection with the potato industry. From time to time under his leadership committees were set up to tak: care. of immediate needs. including tariff negotiations which, in 1929 saved us from a complete shutout from the U. S. markets, and in 1935 gave us our present U. S. tariff arrangement. In years of sur- plus. efforts were made to get such assistance as-hwas available. such as the British Deal. starch program. the purchase of surplus potatoes in the Spring. and like activities.

Following Mr. Bouiter's retirement a promotional Board was or- ganized in 1947, and funds were accumulated and put to work for thr benefit of the industry. These are still the only funds that art. available today for'discase control. The promotional Board was taken

when all lit

Marketing Board.

when some people try to who grow potatoes and those who

IIEWSY

The hurricane Hazcl had its be- ginning in the Caribbean Sea. A commercial airplane pilot. flying along the north coast of South A- merica at 5 o'clock on the evening of October 6th. radioed. when some distance northwest of Cara- cas. Venezuela. that he had en- countered a lot of thunderstorms and had observed conditions that indicated "a disturbance” of more than normal intensity a few miles off that coast.

We had flown along this coast on August lat to Caracas, and back on August 6th to Panama, and generally flew above the great snow white cumulus clouds that rose thousands of feet above the Caribbean. Occasionally we pas- sed through thunder clouds that rose away above our course. These areas were turbulent and the flight was quite rough at times.

The hurricane hunters of the United States air force reported, after investigation. the appearance of a new hurricane, which. being the eighth of the season in the At- lantic, was named Hazel. The typhoons of the Pacific are named after boys.

6 O O

Hazel moved slowly and harm- lcssly about the Caribbean for four days. than it suddenly turned north and struck land on either side of the narrow channel be- tween Haiti and Cuba. Hurricane observers say that had it struck Haiti and its high mountains head on, it would have collapsed by losing its force and shrinking from precipitation; however. it just skirted the mountains, but struck the eastern lowlands with their dense population. Three hundred and sixty persons were reported killed. and 100,000 homeless, with the season's banana crop destroy- ed. We have read of the courses taken by many Atlantic hurricanes which rarely have followed the course of any previous one. and were not known to have crossed over a mountain range. Hazel continued to baffle the U. S. wea- ther bureau. who predicted it would follow up the Atlantic coast past Capt Hatteras. and then swing out to sea. as it bounced off the Alleghany m o u n ta i n s west of Washington.

O 0

At ii a. m. on October 15th. Hazel struck the coast of the Caro- linas, causing great destruction; it jumped the Allegheny Moun- tains. flooded out 2400 families in Wheeling. West Virginia. and con- tinued north. across Pennsylvania and New York to Lake Ontario. killing 82 persons and destroying property so that President Eisen- hower declared that a major dis- aster has occurred throughout its course in the United States.

The staff of the Canadian Mele- orologlcal Station at Malton. On- tario. who had been recording a cold front that was on its way from the Yukon. decided that the U. S. forecast was wrong. and five hours before Hazel reached the Carolinas they plotted the probable course of the hurricane as jumping the Alleghanies and forecast that its centre would cross Lake Ontario about it p. m.

The Malton weather bureau kept issuing warnings of hurricane winds. and the heaviest rain. all day Friday that Toronto has ever recorded. They also watched the movement of the cold front as it moved southward across the prair-

ies from the Yukon. it moved into thg United States. swung towards

from the hands of the Committee in charge and placed under govern- mental control, and was finally superceded by the present

Harmony is necessary for progress, but you cannot have harmonv divide the country into

We are prepared at all times to co-operate agency of potato producers for the benefit of the industry.

P. E. I. Potato dz Turnip Dealers Association

By J. A. Cllrk. D.So. FEBOCIOUS HAZEL

Potato

two parts-those merchandise them.

with any recognized

R. L. BURGE-President E. W. CAMPBELL-Secretary.

NOTES

the east and then headed straight for Toronto. They forecast that these two storms would meet near Toronto. one laden with an enor- mous quantity of warm vapour from the Caribbean, which the cold front would precipitate producing the greatest quantity of rain that has fallen in Central Ontario since 1878. ” I I O

The head weatherman at Mal- ton took it upon himself to per- sonally broadcast four times that hurricane Hazel would reach Tor- onio Friday night, when his su- perior refusell to permit official warnings. ”Perhaps for the heaviest rain Toronto has ever had in its history" Malton repeated many times.

Tioly lotus

One of the tricks now resorted to to sell furs in top salons is to have one or several photo- graphs taken of an interested cus- tomer modelling fur pieces. If a sale is not made then these photo- graphs are developed and sent with the compliments of the firm to the lady's address. She shows them around among her friends and that is excellent publicity and often leads to many sales.

United Mink Breeders Associa- tion at a meeting held in the Schroeder Hotel. M ilw a u k e e, formulated a definite policy for rebuilding breeding herds of its members in event of a catastrophe. The UMPA plan is not a new one exactly and is described as inter- nal insurance against a member's crop being wiped out by disease or other catastrophe. The first to benefit from the plan will be Henry Luckert. one of the UMPA char- ler members. Mr. Luckert, Mar- inette. Wis.. recently lost 90 per cent of his mink crop killed by food poisoning. UMPA will finance the purchasing of 60 per cent of Mr. Luckeri.'s breeding stock. In- dividual members of UMPA will furnish the other 40 per cent. Mr. Luckert will repay this investment over a period of years.

Speaking from the floor Henry Luckert thanked them for putting him back in business and he told them how almost overnight his en- tire mink crop was wiped out. Ar- thur MacArthur of the advertising department, said that this year's dark mink crop will probably be 20 per cent less than last year's. The pelt crop will be down still more. probably one-third. because members are rebuilding their own dark herds. While declining to dis- cuss price he said that price al- ways follows a supply factor.

Floods which followed hurri- cane Hazel have wiped out the livelihood of 41 mink ranchers near Newmarket. north of Toronto. An estimated 350,000 worth of ani- mais drowned or died of pneu- monia during the flood. There is no estimate of the replacement cost of buildings and equipment which were ripped from their moorings and damaged beyond re- pair. Pelts which can be salvaged are about five weeks before their prime. More important to the ranchers has been the loss of breeding stock. Coleman's ranch. for example, which had 855 stand- ard platinum and pastel mink, has only 12 left. At a meeting of the Ontario fur breeders in Guelph steps were taken to establish a fund to replace the breeding stock.

The royalty of Great Britain, the Queen and the Queen Mother. are doing a great deal to popu- larize foxes. Queen Elizabeth wears white fox. platinum fox and pearl platinum fox and in the latest Women's Wear Daily is as picture of the Queen Mother with the following: ”Queen Mother ar- rives in grey satin for her Ameri- can tour wearing a platinum fox stoic and accessories of shades of grey."

Sam Gottcsfeld, writing in Wo- men's Wear Daily, states that Eu- ropeans took on more American. ranch raised mink during the last auction season than at any time in history and trade sources ex- pect foreign interest to continue strongly in 1934-55. it is estimated that Europe and South America took about 15 per cent of the standard and mutation crop of the United States last season. In ad- dition Europe purchased a very

Two thousand three hundred peo-

(Continued on page 14)

Bringing Home The Bacon

'Joseph Lengauers 300-pound

zi pigs on his Seeshaupt, Germany, to survive the first critical weeks. mother's weight.

large share of the American wild mink crop. Fairchild's research

pig gave birth to a record litter of farm. Two were not strong enough and two others died under their

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Silver Fox And Mink Farming

department gives the following fi- gures: United Kingdom -- 109,682 pelts valued at 32,219.71); Canada -1l.lll pelts valued at 31,255,352: France -a 23,370 pelts valued at 34963148; Switzerland -l8,4B8 pelts valued at ”'l4.f67; Italy E 10,- 357 pelts valued at S238,-101. Trade sources point out. however, that while Great Britain hasrbeen the leading purchaser of American mink for the past two years these purchases are for the purpose of distribution to other countries ra- ther than for consumption in Can- ada. The above figures do not in- clude dressed mink which were taken on in greater quantity by Europe last season. y

An American and an authority on furs states: "if they really want top grade mink they have to come to the United States for them. They cannot get it in Scandinavia. At a meeting of the! executive of the Canada Minki Breeders Association held in Mon- treal October 2B, they voted to sponsor auction sales in Canada both of EMBA mink and "Canada" mink dark ranch pelts this coming season. the latter for the first, time. First and second sales datesi were introduced following a meet- ing with the Canadian auction company representatives. l

A mink marketing board for both mutation and dark ranch mink was recently appointed by CMB and will operate to police quality and generally to function in much the same manner as the United States marketing boards. First and second auction dates for both EMBA and ”Canada Mink" dark goods have been awarded as follows: Canadian Fur Auction Sales Co. (Quebec), Ltd.. Mont- real, Dec. 3 and Jan. 20; Hudson's Bay Co., Montreal, Dec. 6 and Jan. 31; Western Canadian Raw Fur Auction Sales, Ltd., Winnipeg. Dec. 7 or 8; Edmonton Fur Auction Sales, Edmonton, Dec. 18 (tenta- tive date. if requested); Soudack Fur Auction Sales, Ltd.. Winnipeg Dec. 14. Other dates will be set later in the season.

Sold through lumber dealers coast to coast

M.F. KENSINGTON -

: Saturday." Nov. it, sells !'lis uusstsis” esiu-ssh

Sponsored EMBA mink sales labels for use in garments will will consist of a minimum of lo.- attached to all accepted dark In 000 pelts. "average or better" bundles. and also as with EMBA quality, same as accepted for last mutations, the pelts will be stamj. season's initial EMBA mink suc- ed. tions in Canada. With the spo'1- Next week's the week of to sored sales of "Canada Mink" 24th annual liva for: show and 1th dark ranched pelts. an entirely annual live mink show. They will new venture for Canada, a mini- be shown in the fox pavilion d mum quantity of 7,500 skins per the Provincial Exhibition ground; sale has been set, to consist of Monday, Nov. 8, receiving fox "good average quality or better." until 1l.00 A. M. Judging of foxea In both instances. only CMB mem- commences at 12.30 P. M. Tue; bers pelts are acceptable in spon- day. Nov. 9. judging of foxes comr- sored sales. The term "Canada mences 9.00 A. M.. and contlnuu mink" as forecast at the annual throughout the day. Mink receiv- meeting in Charlottetown. P. E. ed. Wednesday, Nov. 10. judging I.. in August. has been adopted mink until completed. Paivln Cass as the house name, as it were. for will be judge of the fuses and dark ranchcd skins. A trade- Andy Stewart of the Hudson's Bay marked name, however. also is to Company will fudge the mink. The be adopted to identify quality president of the Association is Lo- pelts through all marketing phases. well W. Hancock and the secre- as with EMBA mink pelts. Woven tary, W. R. Shaw.