The Sunday Oregonian., August 05, 1917, SECTION FIVE, Page 3, Image 63

TIIE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, AUGUST 5, 1917.
Frank G. Carpenter Tells How Our Oil Fields Are Being Ex
i hausted and of the Outloook for the Future Oil
. Demands of the War:
irv
JCCopyrlgbt, 191T, ty Frank O. Car
penter.) PORT ARTHUR, Tex. From Port
Arthur, on the Gulf of Mexico at
the mouth of the oil spigot of the
petroleum fields of our great South
west. I send these warnings:
I'on't waste your kerosene! Torn
down your lamps -when you go out of
an evenlngr.
Don't use fuel oil where coal will do
the same work equally well.
Be close with your lubricants In all
eorts of machinery, and economize on
every drop of oil and on every petro
leum by-pi-oduct.
Keep your eyes on the gasoline tank
of your "flivver" and save all the
"Juice" you possibly can.
These are among the demands of the
Nation in these trying war times, and
they come from both the field and the
factory.
This is so, notwiths ding we 'are
producing more petroleum than ever
before. The output last year was al
most three hundred million barrels, but
even at that the prices have risen and
the supply is all used. We now need
ell of these things as never before, and
every patriot will aid the Government
in trying to save them.
This is especially true as to gasoline.
Which is such a vital necessity to the
industrial life of the Nation. The de
mands for It on account of the war
liave reached enormous proportions,
and it is now as important as gunpow- i
der and shells. Great supplies are
needed in France for carrying the
troops, transporting the guns and tak
ing munitions from place to place. It
is also employed for the airplanes and
submarines, and it is the only motor
power of the automobiles in the field.
The Germans would have already
been defeated had it not been for their
large supply of motor car fuel. In some
of their engagements they transferred
large numbers of troops from the east
ern to the western front by motor can
and trucks, and even now the automo
biles are aiding the railroads.
I am told here at Port Arthur that
there is practically no gasoline In stor
age and that the United States is not
making more than enough to supply its
own needs. This is so, notwithstanding
the rapid growth In motor trucks and
automobiles. Last year we had in op
eration Just about three million auto
cars, and this was the growth of only
12 years. In 1905 the number was less
than 100,000. During the first nine
months of last year the cars Increased
in number more than three-quarters
of a million, and there will probably be
more than 4,000,000 cars in use by the
time this letter is published. At the
same rate of growth there will be a
million more by the end of 1918.
Now, at the low average the annual
consumption of every automobile Is
about BOO gallons of gasoline, and at
that figure it will take 2,000,000,000
gallons to supply the 4,000,000 cars we
have now. That is, we shall need ab6ut
a half billion gallons more gas for this
purpose than we were making in the
whole country three years ago, and the
demand for export is constantly grow
ing. Some new motor car fuel will
have to be discovered, and they are
now planning to increase the gasoline
product from natural gas, and by a
number of processes which have of late
been installed. In the meantime it be
hooves us all to save wherever we can.
The demand for fuel oil is Increasing
I
rapidly on account of the war, and
much of this is sold In so near a crude
state that many of the by-products of
the petroleum are lost in the smoke.
Fuel oil is now used by our largest bat
tleships, and It is employed also In the
navies of Great Britain and France. It
Is being consumed by many of our in
dustries at home. Right near here are
sulphur mines which use in the nelgh-
Dorhood of 1,000,000 barrels annually,
and the railways of Texas and Lou
isiana are now burning up 11,000.000
barrels of such oil every year. The
consumption of the whole country in
3 916 was upward of 30,000,000 barrels.
The war demand for fuel oil is said to
be greater than the war demand for
frasoline, and the exports of such oil
were about 1,000,000,000 gallons last
year. The oil is easily supplied to the
. snips. Doth at sea and in the harbors,
It is also used on the torpedo-boats and
destroyers to make a smoke, or
"smuudge," which conceals the fleet
Irom the enemy.
In addition to gasoline and fuel oil
Js the enormous demand for lubricants
made from petroleum. This oleaginous
fluid, which comes from the earth, is
the grease that makes the industrial
world .go round. Every kind of ma
chinery, from the tiniest watch to the
biggest steam engine, is lubricated with
it. It is used by our locomotives, our
dynamos and in the machinery of the
submarines, cruisers and battleships
Special oils are used for high-speed en
gines and for the spindles of our cot
ton mills. There are oils for low-tem
perature ice machines and others for
the hot cylinders of gas engines. There
is not a big gun that sends its projec
tile screaming through the air that
does not move upon a coating of oil
and it is upon such lubricants only
that we can keep moving the industrial
machinery that supplies the demands
of peace.
"With electricity and gas one might
think that the consumption of kerosene
Oil would diminish. This is not so. We
are now using more than 53 gallons
of coal oil per family, and we consume
more kerosene per capita, than any
other nation in the world. The use of
coal oil for lighting is increasing
among the millions of Asia, and if
China should ever use as much as we
are now doing, its annual demand will
be more than 11.000.000 gallons. That
is three times as much as comes from
all the crude oil in this country and ten
times the amount we are now export
ing. In fact, the consumption of petroleum
Is already so great that our supply
will be exhausted within a very few
years unless new oil fields are dis
covered. According to figures given to
Congress in 1916, in a report from
Secretary Lane, a consulting engineer
of the Bureau of Mines estimated that
our oil supply was enough to last only
28 years, and this was based on the
annual product of 266,000,000 barrels.
Last year, as I have said, we took out
of the earth almost 300.000,000 barrels.
and if this increase continues, our oil
reservoirs will be exhausted long be
tore the time fixed by the geological
survey engineer.
' V
We now have ten great oil fields in
the United States. There Is the Ap
palachian field, which takes in New
York. Pennsylvania, Southeastern Ohio.
West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennes
see This produced 24.000,000 barrels
in 1915. There is the Lima. Ind.. field.
which is producing 4,000.000 barrels.
and the Illinois field, which produces
about 18.000,000 barrels. Going farther
westward is trre midcontinent field.
consisting of Oklahoma and Kansas.
It produced 106,000.000 barrels in 1915
and Oklahoma alone produced almost
that much last year. Then there are
Northern Texas and Northwestern
Louisiana, which produced from 8.000.
000 to 15.000.000 barrels: the Gulf field
which, -produced 21,000,000 barrels, and
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the California field, whose output is
90,000,000 barrels and upwrad.
a
Some of these fields are increasing
their yield and some are rapidly be
coming exhausted. Nearly all of the
Eastern oil fields are well worked out.
It is estimated that more than 90 per
cent of the oil has been taken out of
Ohio and Indiana, and that 74 per cent
has been taken out of the Appalachian
field. The midcontinent oil supply is
half gone, and 40 per cent of that of
North Texas has been used in one way
or another. Not more than one-third
of the oil of California has been taken
out, and we have some other states
which have yet to be mined. There is
some oil in Alaska, and also in a num
ber of other states of the West, such as
Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
Altogether the experts have estimated
that we have between 7,000,000,000 and
8,000,000,000 barrels left in the ground,
and that these lie under oil-bearing
lands having a total area about as
large as the state of Massachusetts.
We are using oil so fast that when
the history of our times comes to be
written there may be a period known
as the age of petroleum. The historians
will tell how along about the begin
lng of our Civil War we began to get
oil from the earth, and how oil fields
were discovered not only in the United
States, but all over the world. They
will tell of the growth and value of
the product, and how for almost one
hundred years it lighted the world and
ran the most of its machinery. They
will show how -up to 1917 the enormous
amount of six or seven billion barrels
had been taken out of the earth, and
how about two-thirds of this quantity
came from the rocky bowels of the
United States. Then they will relate
how the fluid gradually diminished,
and how, about 1940, the supply of the
United States was practically gone. They
will describe the decline in other parts
of the world and show that by 1959,
just one hundred years after Colonel
E. " L. Drake drove his first well in
Pennsylvania, the world had used up
its oil supply and had to go to other
sources for the vast number of prod
uects which now come from petroleum.
But all this is conjecture. Truth may
lie in the bottom of a well, but it will
take the oil wells of the future to
show whether this is the truth or not.
Let us get down to the brass tacks of
the present.
Let us take an automobile and drive
around Port Arthur and see what the
United States is actually doing in de
veloping and protecting its great oil
supply. I have called this place the oil
spigot of the Southwest. Situated on
Sabine lake, with a wide and deep chan
nel 30 miles long leading into the Gulf
of Mexico, it is the chief refining and
shipping point of the petroleum which
comes from the oil fields of Texas,
Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kansas. Into
its tank farms pour oleaginous rivers
from a thousand oil wells, and from it
go out kerosene, gasoline and lubricat
ing oils by the millions of barrels. The
oil flows in through lines of iron pipes
eight inches in diameter, and it goes
out in long trains of tank cars and in
tank steamers, some of which carry
70,000 barrels at one load.
The place has two great refineries,
and as I write this a dozen large tank
ers lie at their wharves. One of those
being loaded by the Gulf Refining Com
pany is the Maumee. belonging to the
United States Navy. .It is technically
known as a collier, but its business is
to carry fuel and other oil to our bat
tleships and cruisers. The boat Is
manned fore and aft with guns to pro
tect it from submarines, and it has the
most powerful engines known to naval
construction. The engines are in the
center of the ship. They are three
stories high, and they fill that part of
the vessel from the deck to the hull.
The rest of the steamer is taken up
with vats for the cargo. The vats have
a capacity of 3,000,000 gallons, and each
may have its own kind of fuel oil, con
sisting of fuel, gasoline or lubricants.
The oil is pumped in from the tanks of
the refinery. A ship can be loaded
within a very few hours.
Among the other vessels taking on
oil are British tankers, which will
carry their supply across the Atlantic
to Europe, and there are American
ships ready to sail. The two great re
fineries here, the Gulf company and the
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Texas company, have their own fleets
of tankers, and both are building new
vessels for this time of war. The Gulf
Refining Company will launch one of
10,000 tons before the close of the year
and it has others of 6000 and 7000 tons
each that will be ready next Winter.
The Texas company has several new
vessels of 6000 tons each, and it will
have half a dozen more before 1918.
Altogether, since the commencement of
the war in Europe, orders have been
placed with American shipbuilders for
more than 100 new oil tankers, and of
this number about 30 have been
launched and 61 are scheduled for com
pletion this year. These ships are be
ing built by the different oil companies
of the United States, and are in ad
dition to .the fleets already in use.
We have now a larger oil fleet than
that of any other government, and a
great stream of gasoline, fuel oil and
lubricants is now moving this way and
that, as it dodges the submarines in its
course across the Atlautlc.
The loading of these tankers is
guarded and the two great refineries
are surrounded by soldiers and watch
men. Each has a high fence of barbed
wire about it, and strangers refusing
to halt or obey the directions of the
guards are in danger of death. The
employes of the works are handled with
military precision. Many of them have
their homes near the works and each
refinery may be looked upon as an
Important camp in our new industrial
army. The troops work day and night
turning out gasoline, fuel oil and the
other products of petroleum as never
before. Here at Port Arthur they are
divided into eight-hour shifts, and the
machinery never stops from one year's
end to the other.
Similar activity is going on at all
the oil centers, and the works should
everywhere be guarded. This is so not
only of the refineries, but also of our
great pipelines, of which we have
enough, if stretched end to end, to
reach twice around the world. These
lines connect the oil fields with the
refineries and the ports, and some of
them have a length of hundreds of
miles. There, is one which goes from
Oklahoma clear to New York. It be
longs to the Standard Oil Company.
I despair of giving you a snapshot of
these mighty oil plants. There are two
here at Port Arthur. Both have pipe
lines connecting them with the oil
fields of the mid-continent and the
Gulf, and the oil comes in in great
streams through pipes 24 inches in cir
cumference. It runs day and night all
the year through. The Gulf efining
Company is now using 60,000 barrels, or
more than 2,000,000 gallons, of such oil
per day, and the consumption of the
Texas company is almost as large. The
five refineries which lie near here have
a capacity of about 140,000 barrels, and
their output of gasoline is many thou
sand barrels dally.
The biggest refinery in this part of
the world is the Gulf Refining Com
pany, which I visited today. It lies out
in the prairie, within five miles of
Port Arthur, and its tank farms and
works may be seen as you come in on
the railroad. The plant is one of the
largest and most efficient industrially
of those of the United States. It covers
1600 acres, or the area of 10 quarter
section farms, and more than 1000
acres of this consists of oil tanks and
buildings filled with machinery as in
tricate and varied as that to be found
in any half-dozen industries known to
man. It takes a reservoir of 100 acres
to supply it with water, and it con
sumes every day more water than many
large towns.
The plant Is like a great city. Its
buildings cover 40 or 60 city blocks,
and these face concrete roads as smooth
as a floor. Some of the streets are de
voted to stills, others to machine shops
and factories, and others are lined with
ovens as high as a two-story house.
Some of the ovens are so large that
you could run a train through one of
them and not touch the walls. The
tank farms contain almost 600 steel
reservoirs filled with petroleum and
its products. The largest of them will
each hold 55.000 barrels, and the farms
can store more than 7,000,000 barrels
at one time.
It would take a book as big as a dic
tionary to describe the machinery and
the various processes of making the
vast number ef products that come
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from petroleum.. They are all to be
seen In these works. As the petroleum
flows in it is a dirty crude oil. which
looks much like the thickest of black
strap molasses. It ccmes out in "kero
sene, gasoline, paraffin, wagon grease
and all sorts of lubricants. Some of the
residue is used to cover the roads, and
other parts of it are made into coke,
while others become asphalt for roof
ing. An Important part of the establish
ment is the chemical laboratories. The
refining of oil is an exact science and
nothing is done by guesswork. The
gasoline must always be at Just the
same grade, and the kerosene is tested
In cheap coal oil lamps like those used
by the poorest consumer.
The control laboratories alone make
1500 tests a month and the chemists
deal with all sorts of products. One of
the agents used in refining is sulphuric
acid. This is made on the ground, and
the sulphur comes from the mines of
Louisiana, just over the border. I
iJV - Kit --Al
EDITH LANYON FINDS REST AND
DIVERSION 'BY SEA IN ENGLAND'
Beach Draws Crowds of Women and Children, but Men Are Scarce.
Sailors Appreciate Gifts Sent From Portland American Flag Popular.
BY ELIZABETH E. LANYpN. 1
Ct-T-'Y THE SEA IN ENGLAND,"
hC July 10. (Special.) This sea
-U air is delicious. I am sure
breathing it in does one's nose more
good than syringing it with gallons of
saline solution. For several days I
have not even sneezed. It is unfortun
ate that it gives oVie such an appetite.
We have to devour oatmeal biscuits,
which do not count as rations, in be
tween meals to fill up the gaps.
Yesterday afternoon on the beach my
.small, curly-haired friend worked un
til he was red in the face filling up
the dry rock pools from the sea with
his little bucket.
He Is only four and that little bucket
was heavy on the return trip and
splashed all over his dear little sun
burnt toes. It was a long, hot Journey
from the sea to the pools. I daresay
that expanse of sand looked like the
Sahara desert to him.
Beach Attracts Crowds.
But he persevered. I told him once
that soon the sea ' would come along
and fill those pools free of charge, but
he only looked at me reproachfully and
said: A
"But the dear little pools is firsty
now."
We have never really been Intro
duced properly but met haphazard on
the beach and have a good many things
in common and are great friends. W
give each other hints on sand castles
and things, and he asks me in confi
dence why winkles aren't snails and
why the sea runs after us instead of
staying where it belongs and such
like.
The beach Is usually pretty full up
now with rows of bathing machines
that look like tiny huts gone astray
and deck chairs for rent and women in
striped silk Jerseys. Those striped Jer
seys are all over the place this year,
it is evidently the flying to wear on
(and I do not possess such a thing).
There are some men on the beach
but not many and the few look fewer
still because khaki does not show
much against the sand. It is distinctly
surprising to discover that a harmless
looking heap of sand is really a soldiei
taking a rest.
Mysterious Cave Found.
There is a mysterious cave down at
the far end of the beach. One can only
get into it when the tide is far out.
You wander in and then to the left
there is a cleft In the rock looking too
narrow for even the thinnest person
to squeeze through. However, it isan
optical delusion, for I can get through
myself.
You push and squeeze and wriggle
and wriggle through and then it be
comes wider and wider; then comes a
deep pool which you flounder through
somehow and come out into another
cave. Still pitch dark, but persevere
and a glimmer of light appears and
then at last tha cave opens out onto
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looked into one of the ovens and saw
the brimstone as it was being reduced
to a gas. The flames were light blue, a
blaze of ultramarine, from which rose
horrible fumes. As I looked one man
in our party said: "If hell is like that
it must be a beautiful sight." Thereat
another Joined with, "Well, if hell
smells like that I want to keep out of
it." FRANK G. CARPENTER.
another beach. I felt just like a
smuggler's daughter when I discovered
this eyrie passage through the rock.
Just outside was a lovely pool-garden
and a little crab disported himself
within. As soon, however, as my
shadow fell across the pool he was a-little-craib-in-a-hurry.
He dug him
self in in record time and went out of
sight in the sand. He could give a
trench soldier points on digging himself
in.
Sunset Is Warlike.
I saw the" sunset from the beach a
few evenings ago. It was a very war
like sun, blood-red as it reached the
horizon, and dripping a long trail ot
blood upon the sea before it disap
peared. A very Mars of an Apollo.
In the midst of all this glory I
smiled to myself at a foolish story
someone told me the other day of an
Irishman who remarked that the moon
was much more useful than the sun
because it ehone and lighted up a dark
night while the sun only shone in the
day time when It was light enough any
way!
My management of the bottling and
drying fruit and vegetables demonstra
tion must have been perfectly satis
factory, for I have since been asked to
give a lecture on "Food Economy in
Wartime." I felt most awfully flat
tered at being considered capable, but
modestly refused.
Lady S ! who is the head of the
board of agriculture committee, stopped
me in the street to congratulate me.
My flow of conversation at the time
was much hampered because I had a
large chocolate in my mouth which I
could not swallow undetected. My
small niece never allows me' do such
a vulgar thing as to eat car r in the
street, so I was Just taking ' ivantage
of a few thousands of miles between us
to be an emancipated aunt.
Gooseberries Are Sterilise!,
My cheek must have bulged out a
bit on one side, but I do not think she
noticed it. It is not, by the way, typi
cal of food economy in wartime to be
eating chocolates.
I felt quite at home the other day
sterilizing bottled gooseberries with a
thermometer in one hand. It seemed
quite like hospital times. I have also
had a household patient. Our girl
gardener had an operation on her nose.
The doctor plugged it afterwards and
I told her to ask-me to remove the
plugging for her later. I did bo, and
it was such a gory undertaking that
the other maid nearly fainted at the
sight. I had to do it twice and the
second time was minus an assistant.
Everything was put ready for me, even
the pan to boil my forceps, but all the
inhabitants of the house temporarily
vanished. The victim and I laughed
them to scorn when they became visible
again.
I often get an unexpected patient.
a small boy who has cut his knee or
a little girl with a cut finger. In fact.
all my practice bandages have gone
off on some grateful patient or other.
I have had some very nice letters
from grateful patients lately. One big
stoker, most grateful for some-Portland
comforts for himself and his mess
mates on one of our big new battle
ships, enthusiastically ends up his let
ter with a row of crosses, 11 of them!
I presume they were intended for the
Portland Knitting Circle.
Lately I have been enclosing books
in each parcel and they seem to give
great satisfaction. Another sailor on
a destroyer writes:
"My messmates thank you and your
friends for the gift of woolies. ... I
thank you also very much for the
cigarettes and also the books, which
every one wanted to read at once. The
last book you sent, 'The Whalers,' was
read by all my messmates. It was
the real thing."
Surely J. J. Bell, who wrote "The
Whalers," would be a proud man to
know that. I am sending them "Cupid
in Oilskins," by him, next time I send
them a parcel. He also says that the
woolies were a godsend, as they were
in a very cold place.
Lieutenant Haa Narrow Escape
It was a long, interesting letter, and
he speaks of unexpectedly meeting a
brother he had not seen for eight
years on another destroyer. He touches
neatly on the extreme likelihood of
my popularity with my new patients.
Trust a sailorman to be polite.
The young lieutenant of engineers
whom I have mentioned before is now
home on sick leave. He and his men
were nearly drowned when the Germans
discovered a mine they were digging
and flooded them out. He himself was
saved by clinging to a ledge above the
water in the pitch darkness. He was
there for hours; then the Germans
turned another stream of water in
which washed him off the ledge and
out of the mine, unconscious.
They gave him artificial respiration
and he survived all these adventures.
Several of his men were drowned.
Beatrice Chase, of Dartmoor fame, is
now working on the land in Cornwall
clad in the regulation farm worker's
costume of khaki breeches, leggings.
and long coat with a slouch hat and
big boots. She and John Oxnham,
(who put the b" in amber) wrote a
book together, verses I think.
My cousin in Essex has a woman
milker and she got fooling with a gun
and shot the farm man, so she was not
much help. She injured his arm badly
just in haymaking time. Guns do have
such a silly way of going off when
they aren't loaded. Another woman
milker fell in love with the milk fore
man and wasted his time just when he
ought to have been busiest.
Potatoes in Season Again.
Employers have their troubles these
days when men are so scarce.
Potatoes are in season again, thank
goodness. We no longer have to look
upon them with awe as if they were
hothouse peaches. Sir Walter Raleigh
would be surprised If he knew how
Dooular they have become lately.
After all. those Germans did not suc
ceed in sweetening-' the sea with our
preserving sugar. We have been al
lowed enough by the food controller to
make jam with.
Tasted the sea the other day and It
Is as salty as ever. Perhaps it has a
slight taint of sunken U-boats, but
nothing to object to.
I climbed up a very high rock yes
terday and was surprised to find the
words "Stowe, Boston," on the top, well
encrusted and outlined with baby limp
ets. Americans certainly do "get
rtiere.
"Stara and Stripes" Popular.
An American friend in Boston has
Just sent me a splendid Stars and
Stripes to present to the village-beside
tlie-pool. Tlie people wanted one .to
fly on gala days and that flag is so
popular over here that it is almost im
possible to buy one. It is a great re
gret to them that it did not arrive in
time to fly on July 4, America's day.
Now I am so near the end of this
letter I must tell of the mysterious
word "swank" which the sailormen
put on the flap of their envelopes. The
word bothered the censor for a time
jind then it was discovered to mean
Tseaiea wiin a nice kiss. co uiey iet
it pass through after that.
I felt quite at home the other day
sterilizing bottled gooseberries with a
thermometer in one hand. It seemed
quite like hospital times. I have also
had a household patient. Our girl gar
dener had an operation on her nose.
The' doctor pluggred it afterwards and
told her to ask me to remove . the
plugging for her later. I did so, and
it was such a gory undertaking that
the other maid nearly fainted at the
sight. I had to do it twice and the
second time was minus an assistant.
Everything was put ready for me, even
the pan to boil my forceps, but all the
inhabitants of the house temporarily
vanished. The victim and I laughed
them to scorn when they became visible
again.
. I often get an unexpected patient, a
small boy who has cut his knee or a
little girl with a cut finger. In fact,
all my practice bandages have gone off
on some grateful patient or other.
I have had some very nice letters
from grateful patients lately. One bis?
stoker, most grateful for some Portland
comforts for himself and his messmates
on one of our big new battleships, en
thusiastically ends up his letter with a
row of crosses, eleven of them! I pre
sume they were intended for the Port
land Knitting Circle.
TWO DROWNED IN STORM
Standard OH Launch Sunk in. New
York Harbor.
NEW YORK. July 26. During a
thunderstorm which swept over this
city and vicinity two men were
drowned and three others had a narrow
escape from death when the Standard
Oil launch Delivery was rammed and
sunk in the East River, off Newtown
Creek, by the steam lighter Valvovian,
owned by the Hudson Lighterage Com
pany, of 17 Hudson street.
The dead are Henry A. Grace, 50,
superintendent of the Standard Oil
Company at Long Island City, who lived
at 144 First street, near his office, and
George Weston, 55, foreman of 1S3
First street. Long Island City. The
captain of the launch was Bernard Her-
manson, of 150 Bedford avenue, and the
other two on board were John JIcKee,
of 6C9 Eighth avenue, Long Island City,
and Edward Walsh.
The rescued men, who were picked
up by the lighter, said that Grace and
Weston were passengers on their way
home to Long Island City. It was said
that the accident was due to the thick
bank of fog and rain which settled
on the water, causing the Delivery to
pass directly across the bow of the
Valvovian.
The storm was one of the most se
vere ever seen in Staten Island. A
heavy downpour of rain, accompanied
by vivid flashes of lightning and heavy
peals of thunder, lasted for nearly two
hours. The torrents of water over
taxed sewers and In many places all
over the Island the sidewalks were
flooded. The trolley cars were stalled.
POTATOES ARE BIG CROP
Minnesota Will Break Record, With
35,000,000 Bushel;.
ST. PAUL. July 26. With a potato
crop beginning to come out of the '
ground that experts said may go over
30.000.000 bushels and equal or break
former production records, farmers of
Minnesota are preparing to smite the
high cost of living and at the sama
time bring themselves a record harvest
of potato dollars.
If prospects relative to the late crop
are not marred by adverse weather in '
the next 10 or 15 days the Minnesota
potato crop of 1917 will exceed every
former production, say men In the
trade.
That it will run Into the biggest po
tato money total ever known likewise
13 Indicated, notwithstanding the fact
that last year's crop sold at history
making high prices.
Anoka. Washington, Isanti, Chisago,
Sherburne, Kanabec, Hennepin, Ram
say, Carver, Dakota and Scott counties
all send good reports and never before
was there such a crop prospect, accord
ing to messages from the heavy North
ern Pacific, Soo Line and Great North
ern potato shipping territory directly
north of the city.
T. E. Ryan, of D. E. Ryan v& Co.,
wholesalers, who has been two months
In the field, with only occasional runs
Into town, says that barring most ad
verse conditions in the near future the
Minesota potato crop will mature at
35,000,000 bushels as a miimum.
A gray military cape lined with yel
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Adv. , .
EH 1 04.2