366 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



and Arkansas, and definite advice has been given regarding plans 

 of organization and methods of operation. Extensive work has 

 been done among the fruit growers generally, the nut growers of 

 the South, the cane and sorghum sirup makers of the South, the 

 bean growers of Michigan and California, and the tobacco growers 

 of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Maryland, and Kentucky. 

 In addition to the direct aid given in this way, much valuable in- 

 formation has been accumulated and is being prepared for publica- 

 tion. 



Publications dealing with various phases of cooperative marketing 

 have been issued. A treatment of the general principles involved in 

 the organization and maintenance of cooperative marketing associa- 

 tions was published in the Yearbook for 1914, and was reprinted as 

 Yearbook Separate No. 637: Cooperative Marketing and Financing 

 of Marketing Associations. Farmers' Bulletin No. 656: The Com- 

 munity Egg Circle, was also issued, both publications being now in 

 the second edition. 



Much of the work reported under Marketing Business Practice 

 was planned and conducted under this project before that work 

 became a separate undertaking. The work under Cooperative Pur- 

 chasing and Marketing is carried on by Messrs. Charles E. Bassett 

 and Charles W. Moomaw. 



MARKETING BUSINESS PRACTICE. 



The investigations relating to the accounting, auditing, financing, 

 and general business practices of cooperative organizations, which 

 were conducted during the last fiscal year under the project Coopera- 

 tive Purchasing and Marketing have been transferred to a new 

 project, that of Marketing Business Practice. 



COOPERATIVE OEGANIZATION BUSINESS METHODS. 



After a comprehensive investigation of the accounting methods in 

 use by cooperative marketing organizations throughout the United 

 States it was found that there was a dire need for a text or hand 

 book relating to the general business practices of these organizations, 

 stated in simple form and giving plans for the business organization 

 and the general business requirements for conducting a cooperative 

 marketing organization. To answer this need a manuscript was pre- 

 pared and published as Department Bulletin No. 178 : Cooperative 

 Organization Business Methods. This bulletin was issued in March, 

 and exhausted. This publication serves as a guide in formulating 

 the plans for the business organization of a cooperative marketing 

 association and contains general accounting and business-practice 

 information of material interest to officers and members of such asso- 

 ciations. 



COUNTRY GRAIN ELEVATORS : SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTS, BUSINESS PRACTICES. 



The system of elevator accounts which had been installed at the 

 date of our last report, for experimental operation in four farmers' 

 elevators in the Northwest was installed in other elevators, making a 



