11/18/2012:
When commenting on the lowly potato, W. D. Bates, editor of the Grafton News & Time, stated that it was “only a potato, but next to wheat the most important human food.” He foresaw a new era of prosperity for Walsh County in marketing this product at twenty-five to thirty cents a bushel. But on this date in 1890, the market for potatoes was weak and he proposed several actions to change that.
Grafton needed to establish starch factories or a factory that dried potatoes or canned them. He also foresaw a factory to make what he termed “fancy articles” from the potato, since recent experiments had extracted a material almost equal to celluloid. Over one hundred years later, innovative ideas like this are still changing the face of North Dakota.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Source:
The News & Times (Grafton) November 15, 1890