Potatoes & Gravy

Maine's Aroostook County, dotted with neat white farmhouses and big gambrel-roofed barns, is the most northeasterly county in the U.S. Its richest farmers have become rural capitalists, with offices in town, four-hole Buicks in the garage, sons at Harvard, and winters in Florida. It was all thanks to potatoes--and, in recent years, to the wild generosity of the U.S. Government.

$15,000 Apiece. By the end of June, the Government had in one year poured a whopping $64 million into the pockets of Aroostook potato men, to buy up the surplus from Maine's biggest cash crop. Some of the takes were eye-popping examples of the nation's weirdest experiment in farm pharmacy (total U.S. cost last year: $225 million). At least two Aroostook potato shippers collected Government checks for around $500,000; a dozen or so got more than $150,000 each; at least 31 over $100,000 apiece. In all Maine, 4,503 farmers averaged $15,000 apiece in Government bounty, Washington Post Newsman John W. Ball reported last week.

Those who didn't sell their crops to the Government benefited by the artificially inflated price in retail markets. One potato farmer salted away $13,160 from a 30-acre farm which cost him only $3,000 ten years ago. Another made $50,000 in four years off his 144 acres. Farm laborers were doing almost as well: up to $25 a day for following the digging machines; $15 to $25 a day for planting.

Good Years & Bad. Embarrassed by the Post series, Aroostook farmers rushed forward with explanations. They argued, as every farmer does, that good years only made up for many bad ones, and that their business is at the mercy of the weather. They pointed out that potato raising is an expensive business, with all the costs of planting, harvesting and shipping to come out of their Government checks. But even the potato lobby in Washington (headed by Senator Owen Brewster) had realized that it had begun to overdo it.

For the 1949 crop Aroostookians agreed to cut their acreage by one-fourth--though the Department of Agriculture insists that farmers are growing almost as many spuds, on less land, by planting the rows a little closer together and piling on the DDT and fertilizer. Aroostookians had themselves persuaded Agriculture Secretary Charles Brannan to cut the support price from 90% to 60%, they say. But the House has put it back up to 90%. The big potato grab wasn't over yet.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.