STATE POMOLOGICAI, SOCIETY. IO3 



A single company, or sometimes a single individual, under 

 the guise of a "Creamery Co." would own from one to a dozen 

 creameries, thus getting a monopoly in the region and at once 

 proceed to skim the cream of the farmers' milk and with it the 

 profit from the farmers' labor. 



A skillful and wide-awake butter-maker in the employ of one 

 of these concerns in our community, quietly aroused the farmers 

 to a realization of the situation and their opportunity. He 

 declared that they were paying at least three times as much 

 for the service of the creamery as it was worth and as they 

 could do it for themselves. A society was formed, the neces- 

 sary capital quickly subscribed and the "creamery company" 

 politely offered the chance to dispose of their plant at a fair 

 valuation. This it refused to accept, choosing rather to fight. 

 The result was a farmers' co-operative creamery within 30 rods 

 of the old one and a vigorous fight which soon ended in the 

 triumph of the new and a reduction in the cost of making the 

 butter to less than one-third of the old price. 



This was not the first co-operative creamery in Wisconsin, 

 nor was it by any means the last. There are now about 600 of 

 them in that state, and as it is reported, even more in Minne- 

 sota and adjoining states. It is no longer a bonanza for money 

 men to own creameries in those western states. 



Very similar was the situation of the grain growers in the 

 newly opened territory of the adjoining states. In Minnesota, 

 Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas the homesteaders rushed in, 

 broke up the prairies and raised grain. They had, of course, 

 no place to store their wheat, but hauled it at once from the 

 threshing machines to the nearest shipping points. Here was 

 a fine opportunity for the middleman to step in. At every new 

 station along the railroads elevator companies erected their 

 warehouses and received the farmers' grain at prices which 

 sometimes brought the owners a neat fortune in a single season. 

 Little by little the farmers realized that they did not often get 

 the "square deal." They learned to act together and now a 

 very large and growing proportion of the grain elevators in 

 these states are owned and operated by farmers' co-operative 

 societies. 



As in all such movements, there were many failures in the 

 beginning. The farmers worked their way as through a fog, 



