192 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



Considerable time has also been spent in conference with officials of 

 the Food & Drug Department in regard to the Babcock Testers' License 

 Law and the method of application. 



SUMMARY. 



Days in office and laboratory 86 



Days in field 106 



Dairy manufacturing plants visited 85 



Meetings attended 8 



Meetings addressed 2 



Attendance at meetings addressed 120 



REPORT OF FIELD AGENT JN MARKETING. 



BY HALE TENNANT. 



The work of the Field Agent in Marketing in Michigan during the fiscal 

 year passed may best be described by an account of the activities in the 

 following agricultural industries: 



1. Potato. 4. Milk and other dairy products. 



2. Fruit. 5. Beans and grains. 



3. Live stock. 6. Vegetables other than potatoes. 



In the potato industry, the organization of local associations on the 

 plan described in the last report was continued until a sufficient number 

 had been completed to warrant the organization of the central association 

 which was completed on August 14 and 15 at Traverse City, Michigan. 

 This central organization is known as the Michigan Potato Growers' 

 Exchange. This exchange was organized on a strictly cooperative, non- 

 profit, non-capital stock basis, to comply with the requirements of the 

 Clayton amendment of the Anti-Trust Law, so that both local and central 

 organizations should come under this amendment. The relations of 

 the local association to the central organization are very similar to the 

 relations of the individual farmers to the local unit. That is, they are 

 contractual and the fulfillment of the contract is secured by the deposit 

 of a promissory note, the principal function of the central exchange being 

 to supply a sales service for the local members association whose work, 

 in turn, is to assemble, store, grade and load for shipment, the farm 

 products of its members. 



The time intervening between the organization of the Central Potato 

 Exchange, and the active operating season which began in October, was 

 devoted to the development of a practical working plan for the organization. 

 Special attention was given to the development of the sales and shipping 

 service. Considerable time was spent in conference with the Board of 

 Directors and officers of the exchange in formulating a definite policy, and 

 also in consideration of the personnel of the prospective sales staff. A 

 trip to Virginia was made to study the sales and shipping methods of the 

 Virginia East Coast Produce Exchange and also in the hope that some 

 cooperative arrangement could be made with that organization relative 

 to some phases of the sales service, especially as regards representation 

 in market. Attention was also given to an accounting system for the 

 central as well as the local organizations, and the services of a'representa- 

 tive of the project of the Markets Business Practice were secured.^ 



