St. Louis County Certified Potato Growers Association records

A Minnesota Potato Growers Association had its third annual meeting in Brainerd, Minnesota on December 6, 7, 1917, where the Northern Minnesota Development Association sponsored the meeting according to an article in the Market Growers Journal: The Market Gardeners Trade Paper, January 15, 1918. There was a juried competition at the event and the St. Louis County Certified Potato Growers Association was a participant. The convention featured the second annual Potato show, boys and girls participation, potato analysis, speakers, and recipes.

It appears that the St. Louis County Certified Potato Growers Association formed in 1935 as the second annual report is dated July 10, 1937; however, the first minutes are from a meeting at Cotton, Minnesota titled 'Agriculture Meeting', dated December 15, 1934. The minutes say "Members present: Agriculture instructors, county agents, and farmers." The discussion on potatoes included: whether to set up a county-wide teachers' advisory board, a county planning commission, can we make potatoes pay, can we compete with other areas, organization, cooperation to sponsor a cooperative potato movement, subsequent meetings, an advisory body, participants, a report on alfalfa, cooperators (railroad, experiment stations, chambers of commerce), county agents, markets local and not, seed, fertilizer, machinery, rotation, acquiring certified seed, buying seed from St. Louis county, seed availability, seed varieties, green manure crops, filing certification with the state, use of corrosive sublimate or mercury acid, buying Bordeaux Mix and Calcium Arsenate, recommendation on makes of diggers, potato storage, shipping potatoes year round, advocating for what type of potato.

Beginning with the second meeting, duplicate proceedings are in Finnish.

The July 26, 1936 Annual Meeting states that "membership is open to any farmer who is a bona fide grower of certified see potatoes or other farm products dealt in by this association – upon application to and approval by the board of directors, including the signing of marketing agreements and upon paying the membership fee of $1.00. (Sec. 1, Art. II, By-laws)." There is a list of 61 members. The annual meeting held July 27, 1937 states that each district elected a director before the annual meeting was to convene. Officers were elected by the pool of directors from the pool of directors.

Members were from: Alango, Alborn, Angora, Brookston, Cook, Cotton, Duluth, Eveleth, Floodwood, French River, Gilbert, Kelsey, Lakewood, Meadowlands, Toivola, Two Harbors (Lake County), Virginia, Zim

A Minnesota Potato Growers Association had its third annual meeting in Brainerd on December 6, 7, 1917, where the Northern Minnesota Development Association sponsored the meeting according to an article in the Market Growers Journal: The Market Gardeners Trade Paper, January 15, 1918. There was a juried competition and the St. Louis County Certified Potato Growers Association was a participant. The convention featured the second annual Potato show, boys and girls participation, potato analysis, speakers, and recipes.

It is unclear when and why the association stopped meeting.